


Suite #202

by Anonymous



Category: Tales of Berseria
Genre: F/F, F/M, fun fact: this is not incest i promise, if anything just read this fic for the end, this is basically crack fic but who cares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:48:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26248948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Eleanor Hume is proud of she has made excellent campus housing choices for her freshman year at university. It's a shame that everything will be blown to hell in a single day by two boys who proudly share the last name Rangetsu.
Relationships: Eleanor Hume/Rokurou Rangetsu, Eleanor Hume/Shigure Rangetsu, Shigure Rangetsu/Eleanor Hume/Rokurou Rangetsu, Velvet Crowe/Magilou
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11
Collections: FICS IN LIMBO





	Suite #202

**Author's Note:**

> **fun fact:** i wrote this in 5 hours when i hadn't slept for three days straight and somehow it's over 23,000 fuckin words. note to self: next time you have writer's block, just stay awake for three days straight, you can do it, nothing can possibly go wrong, right?! right?!?! anyway, i hope you find even a tiny nuance of joy in this nonsensical and 300% self-indulgent fic that's somehow longer than any of my abandoned multichapter works??? jfc

At first, opting for a college dorm suite with four single rooms had seemed like a reasonable idea to Eleanor Hume for her freshman year living arrangements.

After hesitantly floating the idea to her best friend Velvet (who had been admitted to the same university and would be starting school alongside her come fall semester) and receiving an unexpected “yes,” Eleanor had gone through the trouble of arranging things with the university so that they would be in two of four rooms in the same suite.

And when Eleanor brought up her only concern— that their other two suite mates would be completely random— Velvet countered logically with the fact that even if they didn’t get along with the other two residents, the size of the suite’s space and their having their own private rooms would likely make it so that wouldn’t even be a problem.

Of course, once Eleanor also factored in the fact that Velvet is pretty much terrifying and fully capable of reducing most people to tears with a single glare, she really thought to herself that Velvet was right and that they shouldn’t run into any problems that they can’t handle.

So, in the end, Eleanor was ultimately forced to concede the point that having two random suitemates would be a small price to pay for the two of them to score rooms in a university dorm suite— together, even. In fact, she even manages to score the two rooms in the dorm that the internet describes as the most coveted one on campus.

When she goes to check out the entire suite several days prior to move in, she’s entirely satisfied with her decision. The common area that connects the four rooms is decently sized, though completely barren (as it will be until she and the other occupants move in their furniture). While that section of the suite is meant to be shared and obviously not private, the actual bedrooms themselves have regular, sturdy dorm doors with perfectly functional locks— she makes sure to check that specifically, just in case.

There’s surprisingly also a small kitchen area in the main space— nothing too extravagant: a stove, two medium sized slabs of counter space (one with a sink), and a refrigerator. Eleanor makes a mental note to tell Velvet to bring all of her cooking utensils and supplies.

She moves on with her self-guided tour of the suite and discovers that there are two bathrooms, one on each side of the suite to be shared by the residents of its neighboring two rooms. Each bathroom has one toilet, two showers with curtains, and a decently sized counter with one sink. Internally, she groans— sharing a bathroom with Velvet will be a complete pain because she _always_ sheds her long, black hair everywhere, but Eleanor just begrudgingly acknowledges that she’ll just have to live with it.

Overall, the suite gets a passing grade, and Eleanor heads back home from her brief visit to the campus to get ready to haul everything she owns away to college.

With the day of move in rapidly approaching, she has everything neatly packed away and ready to go— her clothes, shoes, books, art supplies, track gear, and any other miscellaneous odds and ends she felt like taking. For her part, she’s purchased a futon for the common area to be delivered to the dorm directly (Velvet had argued it was only fair since she was bringing EVERYTHING for the kitchen, along with an armchair from her room at home). As it stands, neither she nor Velvet really need a television for any reason, so that had never even come up. Eleanor has, however, already decided to check local listings for a cheap table and a set of some chairs.

Something about having everything so neatly laid out and planned to perfection is so satisfying to her.

It’s really too bad it’s all about to be blown to hell in just a little under two days.

* * *

Only a single day remains before official university move in and Eleanor is flopped face down on her bed at her mom’s house, sinking into the depths of despair.

Okay, maybe that’s a _little_ too dramatic, but given the situation she just can’t help it.

She’s just finished talking to Velvet on the phone, who had told her that she would have to delay starting her classes and moving into the dorm for two weeks due to her brother passing away. Though Eleanor is obviously crestfallen, she knows all too well how much Velvet loved her little brother, and upon hearing the blatant anguish in her friend’s voice, she opted to set aside her petty woes and comfort her for 45 minutes instead of selfishly spending time worrying about herself.

But now that she’s hung up the phone, a feeling of dread is creeping up inside her.

Two weeks with no Velvet and two strangers living in the rooms right across the common area.

What could go wrong?

A small voice in the back of her mind whispers _"oh my god, literally anything,"_ but Eleanor chooses to ignore it.

* * *

On move in day, Eleanor gets to the dorm as early as possible, which is 6:00 AM on the dot.

The bleary eyed sophomore and junior student volunteers (no seniors are present, because let's be honest, there's just no way any sane senior would help with move in even for the volunteer hours) are initially exhausted and unresponsive when they first begin to help her haul all of her things to the suite in trips. They're a large group of upperclassmen, and obviously they're assisting a large number of new students aside from her who are moving in as well. As the morning moves along, the volunteers gradually begin to wake up throughout the process of her move in by sipping on school provided coffee. It's then that they become chattier.

While speaking with various upperclassmen about the university, classes, and other general topics, Eleanor meets a nice young boy named Laphicet, who must have skipped several grades (and after a brief moment of internal debate, she decides not to pry about that). She introduces herself to his older friend Eizen as well, who doesn't do anything but nod in her direction as acknowledgment. She finds out that they live in the same building as her, just one floor above.

It’s the first time she’s heard about the dorm being co-ed, but she brushes it off without a second thought.

“Shocking that you were able to score two rooms in a suite in this dorm as two incoming freshman,” Eizen comments at one point while helping assemble parts of the futon.

Eleanor stops what she’s doing and turns to face him, furrowing her brow in confusion.

“Why is that?”

“Well, upperclassmen get the top picks for on campus living, and freshmen usually get the scraps. This is the nicest dorm on campus— everyone either moves off campus as a senior, opts to keep their room here when the time comes to re-up, or tries to get into this dorm when they’re no longer freshmen.”

Eleanor blinks twice in confusion and Eizen seems to sense it, so the blonde upperclassman chooses to elaborate.

“What I’m saying is that if you and your friend requested to be kept together and still got placed here, it’s probably because you lucked into having two upperclassmen needing exactly two suitemates specifically. That would most likely happen if they had refused to split up and the school couldn't fill the suite unless they find a specific number of people who seem like a decent fit to put bodies in the other rooms. I'm just saying, it could be all of that— or you had freakishly good timing.”

Eleanor isn’t about to admit to him that she had refreshed the university housing page obsessively until the dorm selection portal had opened so she could put in her (and Velvet’s) requests at light speed— so she just shrugs.

“Freshman luck, I guess.”

Eizen’s mouth curves upward the tiniest bit as he cracks a wise remark that there’s no such thing, and she figures that’s at least the beginning of a smile from him, so she beams back at him.

Once all of her things have been delivered to her room and the futon is 100% assembled, Laphicet and Eizen part with a hug and a nod respectively. Laphicet explains that two of them still need service hours for one of the clubs that they're members of, so they have to head off to assist others who are moving in— although the younger boy makes sure that they exchange phone numbers and insists that he’ll text her later, and Eleanor tells him that she’s sincerely looking forward to it.

She is alone for the next few hours, so during that time she plays some of her favorite music on blast over her bluetooth speakers and begins unpacking all of her things.

The kitchen comes first— Velvet may not be arriving for a while yet, but she had most definitely made sure to weigh Eleanor down with all of her kitchen goodies before letting her leave for move in. Eleanor sorts them into seemingly well placed locations, but she doesn’t really put much thought into it since she knows all too well that when Velvet arrives she’ll make a fuss and rearrange it to her satisfaction anyway.

Placing the futon is easy, and it’s much easier to push around the room than she had thought it would be. After testing how she likes a few different locations, she ultimately decides to move it up against the wall of the common space that has the door to her room, as well as the one to Velvet’s.

Finally, Eleanor walks into her own room, which is very simple— a twin bed, a desk, a chair for said desk, and a dresser. She’s just fine with that— she doesn’t honestly need or want anything superfluous. In fact, the only two things she had decided to bring from home are her beanbag chair (childish as it may be) and her beloved lamp that she always used at her desk throughout both middle and high school.

She’s gotten about halfway through the task of putting her clothing on hangers and hanging them on the rod inside the dresser when her phone buzzes. Eleanor turns it over to check who it is, smiles at the name on the caller ID, and answers casually.

“If you’re calling to yell at me about your cooking stuff, it’s safe and stowed away.”

“Oh. Good.” The sound of Velvet’s familiar deadpan voice is oddly comforting to the butterflies that Eleanor somehow hadn't even noticed fluttering in her stomach. “How’s the suite?”

“It’s really nice, by college dorm standards. I think you’ll be quite pleased.”

All she gets in return is a vague _'hn'_ noise, and then: “So have the other two suitemates showed up yet?”

“No, but I met two very nice guys during move in. They helped me carry all of my stuff to the room from my car, and were very fun to talk to. One even assisted me with setting up the futon you made me buy.”

Velvet chooses to ignore her remark regarding the futon. “You met two nice guys who just _happened_ to help you haul all your shit, huh? Sure, Eleanor.” The rarity of her friend's teasing voice isn’t lost on her and she begins to splutter indignantly, but she is cut off by Velvet speaking once more.

“Well, I was just calling to check in. I’ll see you in two weeks.”

“You could text or call me between now and then, you know,” Eleanor’s tone is the teasing one this time. “And by the way, thank you for worrying about me.”

She hears her best friend let out an irritated huffy noise, but then she finally gets a response in Velvet's tone of voice that has that tiny hint of sincere fondness that she only reserves for her closest friends: “...Whatever. Later.”

When Velvet hangs up, Eleanor smiles fondly to herself, and then continues unpacking. It takes her about two hours, but she finishes with everything except putting decorations on her wall. She’s frankly surprised that her other two suitemates still haven’t arrived yet, but from what Eizen had said earlier, it’s likely that they’re upperclassmen and they most likely care much less about moving in punctually than she does.

It’s about noon now, and she feels her eyelids beginning to droop, which isn’t surprising given how little she had been able to sleep last night and how early she had woken up this morning. Giving in to her sleepiness, Eleanor shuts the door to her room and climbs onto her bed (all the while making a mental note to buy a memory foam topper whenever she can, as the mattress is abhorrent) and curls up under her blankets.

Within minutes, she’s dead to the world.

* * *

When Eleanor finally wakes up from her deep sleep, she’s discombobulated and out of sorts— her nap had clearly gone on far too long and she feels woozy from it. She sits up and swings her legs over the side of the bed while rubbing her eyes and yawning, wondering to herself just what time it is exactly.

It’s then that she hears it from right outside her door.

“Hey, asshole, don’t drop the TV!”

A loud voice.

_A deep voice._

**_A male voice._ **

There comes a quick response, and it’s definitely from a second male, as the voice is entirely different: “Oh come on, I won't. Stop being a dick just because I got the better room.”

The tone of the second voice is smug and self-satisfied, and when first voice rings out again, it’s in an exasperated manner.

“We both know you only want that room because it has the vent in the ceiling that you can stash shit in— which we’re sharing, by the way.”

Eleanor is paralyzed, sitting glued to her bed, but still listening keenly when the second voice retorts with, “Bite me.”

The rest is of whatever is happening outside her door is white noise as she falls deep down into her own thoughts.

Eleanor has never really been one to fear anything. In fact, that alone is part of why she’s made it as far as she has in the STEM field as a woman: men don’t intimidate her, she's confident that she knows her shit, and she’s quick as a whip. But the very foreign, ice cold feeling flowing through her veins is all that permeates her mind as she sits on her bed, still as a statue, trying to get a grasp on the situation.

Her mind flashes back to earlier, when Laphicet and Eizen had told her that they live in the dorm as well, one floor up— and she wants to smack herself for not remembering it right away.

The dorm is co-ed.

_Co-fuckin-ed._

Eleanor feels panic bubbling up in her chest and her head is spinning— she had made the assumption that girls would only be placed and suites with other girls, and that the same would be true for boys. It had just seemed logical at the time and she had taken it as a given. The fact that she had been completely wrong sets in as she is faced with a shocking truth:

_Their two suitemates are boys._

* * *

The two men outside her door still seem to be quibbling loudly, but it doesn’t even register in Eleanor’s head as her brain is currently completely short circuiting. After about two straight minutes of that, she finally manages to rally herself and takes a deep breath before closing her eyes to analyze the situation rationally.

She only has to spend a small amount of time thinking on it before she finally relents and acknowledges that what’s done is done and this housing situation is ultimately set in stone regardless of the shitty circumstances. It would cost a massive amount of money to break the housing contract that she and Velvet had signed with the school, so that's not an option— especially with her only being able to afford university because she got a full scholarship due to track and field in the first place.

And in the end, there’s plenty of space, right? It’s not like she’s going to have to share a bathroom with them, and there’s always a chance that they’ll never hang around the suite or even use the common area, especially if they’re upperclassmen.

Once Eleanor convinces herself of those few points (or at least tries to), she hops off her bed and nervously walks towards her door. She can still hear arguing outside, and while it makes her even more tense, she steels herself and presses onward. Placing one hand on the knob and taking a deep breath, she swings the door open.

The scene before her would be absolutely hilarious in anyone else’s objective eyes, but Eleanor just stares blankly.

As she had concluded, there are two college aged males in the common area, and they both turn their heads to face her immediately when they hear the sound of the door shutting behind her. Both of them have black hair and golden eyes; one boy’s hair is long and loose, flowing freely, and the other boy’s is tied back in a ponytail.

Eleanor’s very first thought is: _oh,_ _they’re both hot._

Her second thought is: _what in the world are they doing?_

They appear to have been wrestling or at least doing some kind of fighting, because the one with his hair loose has the other in a probably not-so-serious chokehold and it looks as though he had been about to dish out a serious noogie. There’s a brief pause as they both stare her down, but then the one in the chokehold looks up and shoots a knowing glance at the one holding him captive. They both grin at the same time.

“So our new suitemates are girls, huh? How the fuck did _that_ happen?” The long haired boy releases the one with his hair in the ponytail from his grasp and smirks in her direction. His eyes are wild and blatantly dangerous, and from what little she has seen of him already he appears to carry himself with a firm sense of pride.

“Don't ask me,” the other boy says nonchalantly, adjusting his clothing where it had become mussed and displaced. Once he finishes that, he smiles in her direction. His eyes are wild as well, but they possess an innate look of kindness instead of a sense of danger. He seems much more relaxed, and she assumes that he will probably be the more reasonable one of the two.

Eleanor feels like she’s going to faint and her knees are wobbly, but she stops herself from reeling internally and coughs awkwardly before she speaks.

“I, uh... I wasn’t aware the suite would be co-ed.”

The boy with the dangerous eyes laughs, deep and masculine. “Welcome to Namco University, babe. All the dorms are co-ed.”

Eleanor visibly bristles at being called “babe” and shoots a disdainful glare in his direction. _Strike one for this guy._

He responds to her shooting daggers at him with her eyes by putting both of his hands in the air in mock surrender, though his face is still far too smug for her liking. “Easy there, tiger. Let's try this again. I’m Shigure Rangetsu.”

The boy with the ponytail has shoved his hands in his pockets and is rocking back and forth on his heels, all while continuing to smile at her in a way that is much less smug in compared to his counterpart. “I’m Rokurou Rangetsu. This asshole is my older brother.”

Shigure rolls his eyes and says, “Rokurou here is just pissed because I beat him at everything. Might as well just tell you that now and get that out of the way.”

Rokurou easily rises to his brother’s challenge by casually saying, “And Shigure here thinks he’s hot shit 24/7 for no reason whatsoever.”

Eleanor feels like the two of them are playing ping pong with her as an audience of one, but she finally finds herself able to interject.

“Um… well, I’m Eleanor Hume, one of your two new suitemates— obviously.” Her voice is far too squeaky for her liking, but she continues regardless. “My friend Velvet will be in the other room, but she won't be here for two weeks because of… family issues.”

Rokurou shoots Shigure an annoyed glance and says in a snarky tone, “Yeah, I know what those are like.”

Shigure is swift to elbow him in the ribs, and it looks like Rokurou is about to retaliate when Eleanor interrupts.

“So, um… I guess we’ll be sharing this space, huh?”

“Guess so.” Shigure doesn’t seem the least bit bothered by that fact at all. In fact, he’s now picked up one of the many cardboard boxes full of his stuff and is walking into his room, obviously ending his role in the conversation.

Rokurou smiles at her once more, a bit sheepish. “We’re gonna unpack, but it could take a while. We also brought a bunch of our old stuff from our common area last year— hope you don’t mind.”

“Oh! Well, uh, that’s actually good, because I only brought the futon. So, um, the place is obviously a little rough around the edges.” Eleanor manages to stammer out her word salad, hating how flustered she sounds.

The boy with his hair tied back just laughs and waves his hand casually before picking up one of his own boxes and opening the door to what is now his room. “Don’t worry, then. We can round it out.”

He then walks inside and out of her view.

Feeling like a fucking tornado has just ripped through the entire suite, Eleanor decides to go for a walk to explore some of campus— and to clear her head, which is running at a million miles per hour.

* * *

Eleanor ends up taking a longer walk than she had expected— just over two hours, in fact.

She spends her time wandering all around the huge campus, familiarizing herself with the many walking routes and academic buildings. She decides to go down to see the track field as well— after all, she'll be spending lots of time there. She also peeps into the dining hall, which has non-campus fast food options on the first floor, and the regular campus dining on the second. Having heard nightmare stories about college dining hall food, she crosses her fingers that it will be edible (hell, maybe even tasty).

The campus itself is beautiful, nestled in the mountains, and almost half of her walk is dedicated to simply admiring the leaves on the trees that have already begun changing color. After the first ten minutes of wandering around, her mind finally slows down— but no matter how much she tries to focus on anything else, her thoughts keep circling back to the two men she’ll apparently be forced to share her space with for the foreseeable future.

More specifically, their eyes.

_Golden and wild._

_Dangerous and kind._

Her stomach is still tied in knots when she arrives back at the dorm, and she finds that she has to take a deep breath before entering into the building and beginning to make her way to the suite. Once she's made her way down the hall, she taps her key card against the sensor at the door and pulls it open.

What she finds inside is that the common area is almost unrecognizable now. Her futon is still up against the wall, but other items now occupying the room include: a decently sized sofa that is in pretty good condition; a large television with a game console connected; a coffee table placed between the television and sofa; a set of speakers with an iPod dock; and a drum set assembled in the corner (oh dear god). Her gaze shifts to the kitchen and she arches a brow; there’s a box that’s obviously from the liquor store sitting on the counter.

Eleanor has always heard that college students stereotypically drink and party pretty wildly; she just hadn’t expected anything on the literal first day. She flushes a little, and for the first time she feels very dumb that she’s never had a single drink in her life. Neither she nor Velvet had ever really felt the need to experiment with it when they were growing up, and in the small town they had lived in there weren't many parties or places to go out.

Not that she, the proud valedictorian of her graduating class, would have gone to a club or a party at that point in her life anyway.

“You okay?”

Rokurou’s voice shatters her thoughts and she jumps, suddenly aware of his presence behind her. He’s close— _too close_ , she decides, and she scuttles away.

“Oh! Y-Yeah, I’m fine.” Eleanor does her best to sound sincere.

From the look on his face, she can tell that Rokurou blatantly isn't buying it. When he just stares her down for several more seconds instead of responding, she nervously finds herself confessing what she had just been thinking about.

“It’s just that, uh… I’ve never had a drink before. I’m a little nervous about the college environment with drinking, and then I saw the box—”

Rokurou guffaws loudly, which had been the exact reaction she had expected (and dreaded) from him. Her face turns pink once more and she casts her eyes downward, feeling incredibly embarrassed.

“That’s nothing to be ashamed of,” his voice is about as casual as can be when he responds. She lifts her head and finds the look on his face soft and genuine, but also noticing that it has a hint of roguishness to it as well. “Personally, I started drinking early in life. That’s not how it is for everyone and I get that, but believe me— you’re missing out.”

Eleanor’s cheeks are still burning, and Rokurou seems to have noticed that— his grin may just be a little wider than it was a moment ago.

“Why are you thinking about it? Do you wanna try some?”

Eleanor takes a moment to think it through and then decides to give it a chance— she **is** in college now, after all. When she speaks, her voice is shaky, but she does her best to hide it.

“Sure.”

Rokurou looks overjoyed and there’s a new sparkle in his eye as he heads for the box. He opens it and takes a moment to find the right bottle, then pulls one out that is full of clear liquid. “I’ve got some girly-ass fruit flavored vodka here, would that work for you?”

Eleanor turns even redder and nods affirmatively.

Rokurou opens one of the kitchen cabinets and pulls out two shot glasses— she notices several more in there as well before he shuts the door— maybe he collects them or something, who knows. He sets the shot glasses down on the counter before grabbing a regular cup and putting some ice cubes in it. With that done, he pours two shots, doing so over an ice cube each time.

When he catches her confused look, he explains: “The vodka has been sitting in the box, so it’s warm and gross. This way it’s kinda cooler and not so gross.”

She nods, vaguely understanding. Rokurou puts the vodka in the freezer and then approaches her casually (her breath hitches for some reason as he does so) and hands her one of the shot glasses.

“Normally, I'd recommend a chaser for you since you've never had a drink before. You use it to really swallow down the shot afterward, and sometimes to help with the taste. But, uh, we don't have anything for that right now.”

Eleanor scrunches her nose up in confusion, deciding to disregard and bypass the concept of a chaser since the very fact that they don’t have one makes it irrelevant. “So, the vodka doesn't taste good on its own? Why drink this stuff, then?”

Rokurou just grins wildly, “That’s for you to find out.”

It’s at that moment that Shigure’s door swings open, and Rokurou shoots an irritated look at his brother as he casually strolls out of his room and over to where they’re standing in the kitchen area. His eyes land on the shot glasses they are each holding.

“Where’s mine, little bro?” He says mockingly.

“You can pour your own shot, you lazy ass,” Rokurou retorts flatly.

Shigure just laughs loudly and walks over to the cabinet, grabs his own glass, pulls the vodka out of the freezer, pours himself a shot, and then finally joins them.

“So, uh… how exactly do I do this?” Eleanor feels incredibly stupid for asking, but she’s not quite sure about how anything involving drinking works.

Rokurou chuckles, but it’s clear from the tone that he's not mocking her at all.

Shigure, however, grins and makes sure it has a large amount of smugness to it. She’s rapidly acknowledging that he’s doing that on purpose, and it makes her feel angry given that she barely knows him. “Just tilt your head back, pour it in your mouth, and swallow it— preferably quickly. Simple as that.”

“If you’re hesitant about the taste, you can plug your nose,” Rokurou suggests, and Eleanor nods, thinking that doing so actually sounds like a good idea.

Eleanor takes a deep breath— Shigure snorts in laughter as a reaction to her doing so— and says in a voice just a tad too high to be considered tough: “Okay, I’m ready.”

Rokurou and Shigure throw their shots back like it’s the easiest thing in the world and slam their glasses down on the counter when they're done. Eleanor steels herself, pinches her nose, tilts her head back, and pours the liquid down her throat. Though she can safely assume that plugging her nose had somewhat dulled the taste, it’s still horrible. The alcohol burns intensely all the way down, and the ‘fruity flavor’ is basically nonexistent.

Though Eleanor manages to swallow the shot in its entirety, she begins to cough right afterward. She sets her shot glass down on the counter next to the two the boys had used, and while her eyes burn with a few tiny tears, she looks up to see the two of them grinning at her.

“Glad you both can find joy in my pain,” she says irritably, hiding her embarrassment as best she can, her throat still burning.

“It’s not like that,” Rokurou says, despite his obvious inability to keep himself from smiling.

“It’s just that it’s so much fun. Corrupting innocent little freshman, I mean.” Shigure is once again about as blunt as can be— something he’s made a habit of demonstrating so far in their interactions, so she assumes that he’ll be that way indefinitely— and he's shooting her one hell of a shit-eating grin. She feels her face heat up rapidly.

Eleanor decides to start making a point of ignoring him and instead turns toward Rokurou. Finally, she musters up the courage to speak.

“Well… it’s the end of the day. Move in day, I mean. I assume you two have plans for the evening, right?” For her, it’s more than just an innocent question— she hopes that they do, honestly.

“Nope,” Rokurou is stretching out his arms, and for the first time she notices just how small she is compared to both of them. Her heart sinks when she hears his answer. “Very few of our friends are back yet, so we’re just gonna hang out here.”

“Why do you have the huge box of liquor, then?” The confusion is evident in her voice once again.

Shigure cuts in and says sarcastically, “I think the better question is why would we ever _not_ have a huge box of liquor.”

Eleanor ignores him until he finally speaks up again, actually answering her question this time.

“It’s for the annual ‘Welcome back, fuckers’ party. It’ll be in a few days.” Shigure strides over to the couch and slumps down onto it, his posture oozing confidence. Without even looking over, she can tell that his eyes are still locked onto her.

“Which you are totally invited to, by the way,” Rokurou chimes in. “Even though you’re just a wee freshman.”

Shigure snickers at that and Eleanor breaks her streak of ignoring him by daring to look at him, if only to shoot him a death glare.

“So you’ll be hanging out here tonight, then?” She asks, hoping somehow that the answer will have magically changed to _‘no’_ in the past two minutes.

“Yup. You might as well hang out with us too and get to know us, right?” Rokurou grins at her and she blushes once more (which she’s positive he notices).

The finality of what he says next sends a shiver down her spine:

“After all, we’re stuck in this together for at least a year.”

* * *

Eleanor is completely silent while the boys start up the PS4 and pull up Netflix. The two of them have moved from occupying the small kitchen area and are now by the television and coffee table. Shigure and Rokurou are sitting on the couch (bickering for some reason she's not paying attention to), while she is neatly seated on her futon. She picks at the bottom hem of her dress nervously, lost in her own thoughts.

Okay, so she and Velvet would be living with two extremely hot, loud, and competitive guys. It's not so bad, right? Velvet has never shown any kind of interest in boys, romance, or even sex, so Eleanor knows that her friend will be fine, and she also knows that she can count on her to act as a buffer zone.

But then she finds herself wondering, _what about me?_

Eleanor may be naive, but she tries not to consider herself a prude— so the way the two boys have already managed to make her stomach do repeated somersaults after so little interaction with them is foreign to her. It's not that she hasn’t been interested in boys before— she’s had one boyfriend in the past, and of course over the years she's had many crushes that she ultimately kept to herself. Dating was just never at the forefront of her mind when all her future plans occupying that space instead.

“Eleanor, do you wanna pick what we watch?”

Rokurou’s voice once again shatters her thoughts (he's good at that, apparently), and her green eyes snap up to meet his golden ones. She finds herself automatically thinking about how wonderful her name sounded when spoken in his voice— which makes her want to kick herself somehow.

“Um… I can, if you want.” Her response is weak as hell and she knows it, but Rokurou nods his head in affirmation anyway. Shigure might have his gaze on her as well, but she has now resumed her ongoing crusade of making it a point not to look at him.

Eleanor thinks long and hard for a moment, then suggests one of her favorite shows, ‘Parks and Recreation’. Both of the boys admit that they’ve never seen it before, and she has a brief moment of excitement in which she starts to give an overview of the show and its best characters. She only stops when she realizes she’s been rambling and she turns bright red again.

More than anything, though, she stops because she’s finally looking at both of their expressions— Rokurou, engaged in what she is saying and enthusiastic, and Shigure, silent but fixed onto her in an annoyingly unreadable way. Feeling very embarrassed, she meekly suggests starting the show, her excitement fading.

Shigure navigates Netflix using the console’s controller to find the show and (at Eleanor’s recommendation) skips over season one and goes straight to season two, picking a random episode to play. When the cold open ends and the show’s introduction music hits, Shigure looks over at Rokurou and asks casually, “What’s the drinking game for this one?”

Rokurou shrugs. “Haven’t seen it. Ask her.”

“Eleanor,” Shigure is staring straight at her, his ever present snarky look still on his face. Something about the way he's looking at her makes her insides stir, and just like with Rokurou, the way her name sounds rolling off his tongue is disquieting— or is it melodic? She hates that she can’t tell.

“What’s something that happens a lot in this show?” He asks, interrupting her internal discourse regarding her own inability to work out which of the two it is.

“Well… I guess there's a character named Jerry who is really clumsy and does dumb stuff a lot, and everyone makes fun of him.” She's very unsure as to why he’s asking, but gives what she believes to be an adequate response.

“Okay then. We’ll all drink every time that happens.” Shigure sets the rules, looking far too self-satisfied yet again, and it’s then that she finally notices that the vodka bottle is snugly wrapped in his hands.

“What?” Eleanor gets the premise, but to be frank, she can’t comprehend how stupid and simplistic it seems and needs confirmation. “So we’re just going to get drunk by drinking whenever something specific happens in the show? That's it?”

Rokurou laughs and just says, “Yeah, basically. It’s just a drinking game. You can make one for practically anything.”

There are a million reasons Eleanor should excuse herself right now— she’s never been drunk; she doesn't know these guys that well; she’s nervous as all hell—

But in the end, her stubborn pride prevails above all of her common sense. After all, she has to choose between either breaking her $6000 housing contract and going broke or somehow sucking it up and dealing with this situation. Her only real option is the second one, which means that she can't come across as demure or feeble in any fashion. She huffs indignantly, determined to come off as strong and unflappable.

“Okay. No sweat.”

Shigure snickers again when she says that, and she looks over at him this time.

“Loving the confidence.” His eyes flash with an extreme glint of some kind of strange intent as he stares right into hers now that she's facing him again. She turns red right away as he follows his (maybe?) compliment up with, “Just try to keep up.”

Eleanor knows already that she absolutely won’t be able to do that, but she can tell he’s challenging her to see if he can get her to step up, to see if he can get a rise out of her— and she’s ashamed to admit internally to herself that it’s working. She casts him the most confident look that she can muster and he seems to soak it in, smiling all the while.

As she turns to check the screen, she watches Jerry fuck up in the show for the first time. She swivels back to face the two boys and sees that Rokurou has taken the entire vodka bottle from Shigure. He’s turned it up and is casually taking a rather large swig (which looks almost impossible for her). When he finishes he hands it over to Shigure, who does the exact same. Finally, Shigure holds it out to her, looking at her expectantly.

Against her better judgment, Eleanor takes the bottle from him with semi-shaky hands and attempts to drink the same amount the two boys had just downed. Immediately she wants to spit out the vodka, but she ultimately forces it down— although she shudders and twitches while she does so. Coughing again once she’s finished, she hands the bottle back to Rokurou for him to hold and be ready for the next round of drinking.

“Hey, not too bad.” Rokurou’s tone is teasing, but his eyes are kind, and she smiles.

* * *

Jerry’s fucked up four times now over the span of two and a half episodes, and Eleanor is buzzed as hell.

It's only natural, she reassures herself, given that this is her first time drinking. She’s not swaying or slurring at all, but she feels as though she’s drifting, floating on cloud nine— she also can’t seem to stop giggling or babbling, and she’s getting along with the boys swimmingly so far. Even Shigure seems to be taking a liking to her company.

Jerry makes a fifth mistake, but this time when the bottle reaches her, Eleanor waves it away amicably. “I think I need a break. First time drinking and all. I feel good right now.”

Shigure grins, and this time it’s actually not obnoxious. “Good.”

The show clamors on in the background, but the three of them lapse into chatter instead. Rokurou and Shigure pass the bottle back and forth until it’s empty, which actually happens rather quickly given that initially there had been three of them drinking it. Rokurou is quick to grab another bottle that he had evidently placed in the freezer, and this one is much cooler and goes down much smoother. The two men continue to switch off, and every so often Eleanor jumps in for a swig to maintain her pleasant buzz.

It’s been an hour or two and the group has been chatting and laughing about general nonsense and nothing in particular— it actually takes her a long time to realize that their conversation has involved no real life details. Eleanor is about to start asking actual questions about the two of them when Rokurou’s phone buzzes, and when he glances at the caller ID he seems to grimace. Shigure peers over to see the name on the screen and laughs at his brother, clapping him on the back roughly.

“Have fun with that,” is all Shigure says, and Rokurou shoots him a venomous glare. He then sighs irritably, stands up, and walks into his room. Eleanor hears him answer the phone with _"Zaveid, I swear to god, if this isn't life threatening I'm going to literally hunt you down and murder you,"—_ just before his door shuts, but there is nothing audible beyond that.

Suddenly it’s just her and Shigure in the room, and the atmosphere is all tension— accompanied by something else she can’t put her finger on or clearly identify, which is stressful. Regardless, Eleanor is avoiding looking at him at all costs. She pretends to suddenly be completely engrossed in the show, but feels her defensive mechanisms actively failing her. So when he finally speaks, he easily draws her attention.

“So what’s your story, then, Eleanor? You’ve never had a drink before today? You must be some kinda goody-two-shoes, then, huh?” His eyes are wicked and his tone is teasing.

“N-No, not at all!” She’s far too quick to defend herself against the barrage of questions, and she knows it as soon as she blurts out the words. A blush surfaces on her cheeks once more, and she finds that it’s intensified by the alcohol. It's also worth noting how annoyed Eleanor is at herself for liking how her name sounds coming out in his voice as well, and she slaps herself across the face mentally for it.

“So what else haven’t you done? I’m guessing you've never smoked pot.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Jesus. Have you ever even had sex?”

Eleanor shoots him an ice cold glare, but chooses not to respond to that one, because the answer is that no, she hasn’t— and for some reason she suddenly finds that incredibly embarrassing.

She’s positive that he takes notice of her failure to answer, but feels far too awkward to look at him because she isn't sure that she wants to see his reaction. Shigure is silent for a long moment— a moment that is far too long for comfort, so she hesitantly opts to look up and meet his gaze. His already wild golden eyes are two thirds intimidating and one third captivating, and it sends another shiver down her spine. While he may not be saying anything, she still feels that unidentifiable _something_ in the atmosphere.

“What is it?” Eleanor finally asks in a snippy tone, finding that his newly returned smug behavior is beginning to irritate her again.

His response surprises her, and it’s just as blunt as he's always been in the short time since she’s met him:

“You’re cute.”

Eleanor can immediately tell that her face is now blushing a furious red, both because of the heat she feels in her cheeks and because of the look he’s giving her. Shigure casually leans back, shrugs in her direction, takes a swig from the bottle, and then continues.

“I definitely wasn't expecting to have two girls as suitemates. When we requested two people who would know each other already, I was sure they would do the standard and stick us with other dudes. Not sure how the hell this happened, but I'm not complaining.”

She sighs in exasperation and chooses to ignore his last comment. Feeling more comfortable sharing her feelings due to a little liquid courage, she fires back. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t exactly expecting boys, but here we are, right?”

“It’s not all bad though, right?”

His semi-dark tone draws her eyes over to him even though she knows it's a bad idea, and his body language is very obviously encroaching on the danger zone. He’s incredibly cocky— she can tell from the way he’s looking at her and how he’s sitting. And, of course, his smirk is also a dead giveaway.

Eleanor decides that she will _not_ to allow herself to become flustered and simply says, “I don't follow.”

Shigure stands up, and as he takes a few casual steps towards her spot on the futon alarm bells go off in her head at record volume. She’s frozen on the cushion, paralyzed for two reasons: the first reason is simply a sense of fear, given that she doesn’t know this clearly wild and overly flirtatious man well at all, and the second reason is just hard to admit— even in her own head.

Because the second reason is that she’s drunk for the very first time in her life and quite frankly she’s enjoying the rollercoaster that is the interaction between the two of them— which is so incredibly _illogical,_ and she’s aware of it— in fact, that might be _why she likes it._ Logic is something she lives for, and absolutely loves— but right now she feels that she can't deny this illogical situation piquing her interest.

For once Eleanor finds herself wanting to see where things go naturally instead of having things impeccably planned to the letter, like everything else in her life. She always crosses her t’s and dots her i’s, triple checks everything, and insists on perfection. It’s just who she is.

Eleanor knows that she loves order—

which in turn is now making her drunken self wonder if she could perhaps love a little chaos, too.

The alcohol seems to significantly increase both the tension in the air and the emotions in the room tenfold, and in the time her brain has been rapidly processing all of her feelings, Shigure has finally made his way over to her. He slumps down onto the futon, taking a seat next to her— in a spot that is in very close proximity. _Very_ close. So close, in fact, she can feel heat radiating from his body. The alcohol may not affect him mentally as much as it does her, but his body and its temperature are reacting the same.

Eleanor fidgets for a moment before finally asking, “So are you a sophomore? Or a junior?”

Shigure leans back slightly and when he does, his arm brushes up against hers— and she can't help but notice how toned it is when she briefly makes contact with it. “Junior,” he answers simply, and turns his head to smile condescendingly at her again. “So it’s extra funny to be rooming with a little freshman.”

Eleanor puffs up her cheeks in an attempt to look angry, though she's sure the attempt falls drastically short. “It won’t just be me. Velvet will be here soon.”

“Velvet, huh?” He hums absentmindedly. “I’m assuming you two are friends. I mean, when we requested two new suitemates, we stated that we wanted them to already know each other.”

“Yes, that's correct. We’re very close.” She smiles instinctively at the thought of her dear friend.

“But—” Shigure pauses, and his eyes dart down towards the bottom of her face briefly before they snap back up to meet her gaze again; he had glanced at her lips, she figures, and that simple action makes her heart begin to beat a mile per minute— “she’s not here now, is she?”

Eleanor swallows the lump forming in her throat preemptively before it grows larger. “W-Well, no, she’s obviously not.”

Her stammering is apparently enough to show him that he’s successfully getting underneath her skin, and he smirks before rotating slightly and leaning in extremely close to her, ultimately resting his chin on her shoulder that’s next to him. She can't see his face anymore, but she can take in his scent— a mix of sweat and some kind of faint cologne— and it makes her feel weak when coupled with his close vicinity.

When Shigure speaks again, it's in a hushed tone:

“It looks like it’s just us right now, then.”

His warm breath washing over her skin makes her shudder and she knows full well that it does not go unnoticed. Eleanor tries to form words, but her brain is completely nonfunctional since this is a brand new situation for her, so all she can really do is blush harder and start fidgeting again. Theoretically, she could get up, run to her room, and slam the door behind her— but right now that's the last thing on her mind, and when she can’t logically explain why, she finds herself blaming the alcohol once again out of sheer frustration.

What she doesn’t expect due to her neverending internal monologue is suddenly feeling his lips make contact with her neck. They’re slightly chapped, but as they latch onto her skin and suck on it lightly she finds herself completely caught up in the moment and not caring at all about something so trivial. Eleanor makes a quiet noise and she not only hears Shigure chuckle darkly— she also feels it reverberate through his body, which makes her once again shudder in turn. He nips at her skin lightly before pulling away from her completely, remaining seated next to her with a smug look on his face, but nowhere near the danger zone anymore.

Eleanor hates that for some reason she wishes he still was.

For the millionth time, she convinces herself that her weird thoughts and feelings have got to be caused by the alcohol.

That said, she sits there and ponders, considering that she has always been extremely brave and she knows it. That's never even been a point of contention with anyone who had met her and become familiar with her nature. So when she realizes that the alcohol, while hindering her in some ways, is also somehow helping her shed many of her doubts and insecurities at this very point in time, she turns abruptly to face Shigure. His expression is momentarily surprised before she bravely (and abruptly) leans in and presses her lips to his softly.

He makes a noise akin to a low growl and immediately returns the kiss, but it’s nowhere near as chaste as how she had initiated it: his lips are moving expertly against hers, and when he bites down on her bottom lip not-so-gently she gasps audibly in response. When her lips part as she gasps, he takes advantage of it and invades her mouth with his tongue, bypassing asking for any kind of permission. She moans into the kiss softly, brushing her own tongue against his experimentally. His hands have found their way to her hips, and she finds herself wrapping her own arms around his neck.

Shigure pulls her into his lap and when Eleanor squeaks in protest he just laughs. She can feel the vibrations the laughter sends throughout his body again, and it sends a rapid shiver up her spine.

“You act like you’ve never been kissed before,” he says teasingly— almost mockingly— as he eyes her with that wild look once more.

“I… haven’t ever had a kiss beyond a peck on the lips until just now,” Eleanor finally admits, figuring that the blunt truth is probably the best option here.

If Shigure regrets unknowingly being the first guy to kiss her since she was in _early goddamn high school_ , he doesn't show it at all— instead he smirks in that annoying manner once again, shifting her on his lap so she’s leaned up against his chest. “Hope that was good then.”

Eleanor doesn’t get a chance to answer as both she and Shigure hear the tail end of Rokurou saying goodbye to whoever (she thinks that she heard the name 'Zaveid', but who knows) he had been speaking with on the phone. His door then opens and Eleanor manages to jump off of Shigure’s lap just in the nick of time. Luckily, it seems that Rokurou hadn’t seen a single thing and that he doesn’t suspect anything at all. Instead, he heads right for the bottle (long since abandoned on the coffee table) and takes a huge swig from it.

She figures that whatever that call was about must have really sucked.

It’s 9:45 pm now, and ordinarily Eleanor wouldn’t want go to bed so early— but with her head spinning in rapid circles and the area of skin that Shigure had kissed burning in the best way possible, she finds herself wanting to retire for the day to the solitude of her room. Eleanor proceeds to make a polite statement about how the alcohol is making her sleepy and excuses herself.

Rokurou waves and bids her good night cheerfully. Shigure waves too, but yet again she makes it a point not to look at him as he does— even though she can feel his gaze on her back until she closes her door and she’s hidden from view.

* * *

_Eleanor is writhing uncontrollably, desperately grabbing at the sheets beneath her because she needs something to hold onto, something to support her— anything at all, as her entire body is convulsing and she can’t control it no matter how hard she tries._

_She also can’t help her moaning as the boy with the striking golden eyes and long black hair— could be Shigure, could be Rokurou with his hair down, she’s not sure which and she frankly doesn’t care— thrusts his index finger between her wet folds and up inside her, making her emit a foreign sound. A second finger slowly begins to work its way in as he continues thrusting the first finger into her repeatedly, and then once the second is fully inserted, he scissors and curls the digits inside of her. Just a little more—_

* * *

The obnoxious alarm on Eleanor’s phone goes off, ripping her from the very vivid dream— it's set to the highest possible volume due to the fact that she is notorious for abusing the snooze button. Her green eyes flutter open and she finds that she’s in her own bed alone staring up at the ceiling, and most definitely not being fingered by a boy with golden eyes and black hair. She reaches over, grabs her phone, and hits the “stop” button, making the alarm instantly fall silent.

Her mind flashes back to the image of the boy thrusting his fingers inside her relentlessly with that mischievous smile on his face and she feels her face heat up. She finds herself wondering how it would feel for someone to touch her like that in real life, and not just in a dream. Eleanor has touched herself before— well, okay, she’s only ever played with her clit, really— and very rarely has she even engaged in that behavior. After all, she’s always been a ‘good girl’, and ‘good girls’ aren't supposed to touch themselves often— or even at all.

At least, that what she’s always been told.

Naturally, it goes without saying that she has never experienced anything remotely close to the events of her dream with an actual man in real life.

With all these thoughts swimming around in her head, Eleanor curses the warmth that’s pooling in her stomach and the unfamiliar sticky wetness between her thighs.

* * *

The first day of classes goes by quickly, and by the end of it Eleanor decides that if she hears the word “syllabus” one more time, her head will spontaneously combust.

She’s briskly making her way back from the lecture hall in which her last class was held, eating a small bag of sun chips as she goes. The walk back to her dorm consists of a bit of a climb up a mildly steep hill— the only downside to living in this dorm, Laphicet had told her via text.

Last night, Eleanor had ultimately decided to text Laphicet as she tried her hardest to put Shigure, his irritating smirk, and his lips out of her mind— and not just him, if she’s being 100% honest— Rokurou had also lingered in her thoughts deep into the night, with his kind eyes and wild grins that give him an air of unpredictability. She was pleasantly surprised (and thankful for the distraction) when she received a text back rather quickly.

They had chatted back and forth for a while— she asked questions about the campus and if there any clubs worth looking into, while Laphicet mostly asked her questions about herself and wound up telling her about himself in turn. At the end of the conversation, when she was truly ready to fall asleep, she had promised Laphicet that she would join him (and Eizen, most likely) for lunch on the second day of classes.

Eleanor crashes back to reality from memory and finds that she’s been so lost in her thoughts that she’s finished her walk and has arrived back at her dorm already. She taps her keycard against the sensor for the main door of the dorm and pulls it open when the light flashes green. She then begins trudging towards her suite, and as she makes her way there, a small twinge of panic sets in— along with a twinge of weird excitement for some annoying reason she can’t explain.

So far, she's successfully managed avoiding seeing either of her male suitemates today. It’s Monday and she has an 8:00 am class on her schedule, which is apparently not really a thing for upperclassmen. It seems to work out that the higher the grade level, the earlier class selection priority one gets, and so as a freshman she had naturally been forced to choose from all the crappy class times. Seniors supposedly are able to get whatever classes at whatever times they want— although she has to concede that they probably deserve it for surviving their first three years.

Not that she minds it, though— quite the opposite, actually. Eleanor has always been a morning person, and having to be somewhere so early also made it easy this morning to shower, do her light makeup, get dressed, and slip out with her book filled backpack without being noticed at all by either of her very attractive male suitemates.

When she finally winds up standing in front of the suite door at the end of her day, about to make her dreaded return, she suddenly finds herself wishing that she could fast forward two weeks to when Velvet would arrive.

* * *

Eleanor taps her card on the door’s sensor and hears the now familiar beep that accompanies a positive match and admission. She proceeds inside and lets the heavy door fall shut behind her. Her first thought is that she doesn't see Shigure, which grants her an immediate feeling of relief. Her second thought is that despite Shigure’s absence, Rokurou is present and in the common area, which takes away some of the relief she had just felt— although if she’s being honest, it's only been a day, and she already knows that she’d rather be stuck with Rokurou than Shigure.

“Hey there,” she says casually, strolling over and dropping her heavy backpack onto the futon with care.

Rokurou is splayed out on the couch lazily, but when he realizes she’s back and sees her walking over he raises his hand and uses two fingers to give a mock salute greeting accompanied by a simple, “Yo.”

Following the exchange of small greetings, there's an awkward moment of silence before he adjusts himself, sits up with better posture, and then speaks to her. “So the party will officially be on Wednesday. All of our friends should be back by then.”

Eleanor pauses before asking, “Do you have a lot of friends, then?”

Rokurou grins. “Enough for a party, at least.”

Eleanor blushes slightly and then looks down at the ground. It’s a simple, objective fact that she’s always had trouble making friends; she’s been told many times that she comes across as very awkward and incredibly stiff. In all honesty, a large part of her wants to decline his invitation to the party purely because of her blatant fear that no one there will like her.

However, something tells her that even if she voiced her concern, Rokurou wouldn’t take no for answer. Hell, somehow it feels like he would probably drag her kicking and screaming.

“Well… that sounds fun, then.” Eleanor knows as soon as the words leave her mouth that she's completely failed to mask the nervousness evident in her voice.

Rokurou hops off the couch and onto his feet then glances at her, furrowing his brow. “Is something wrong?”

She bites her lip, and then tries to circumvent what will inevitably be an uncomfortable conversation by instead saying, “You’re very perceptive when it comes to people and their feelings.”

Rokurou just laughs in a somewhat dry manner, and she wants to ask why— but she doesn’t. Unfortunately for Eleanor, her attempt at circumvention fails completely as Rokurou is apparently more persistent than she had initially thought (something she thinks that she needs to remember for the future).

“Seriously, what’s up?”

She holds her breath for at least five seconds while her mind races to fabricate an excuse, and she then finally releases it in a huge sigh.

“I just… I’m not very good at making friends. I’ve been told that I’m very awkward, so honestly the idea of going to this party— or any party, for that matter— scares me a little.” Eleanor’s eyes have dropped down and are focused on the floor as she feels stupidly ashamed. “I know how lame that sounds.”

She doesn't hear an audible reaction, so after a few moments she finally raises her head and Rokurou’s smile makes her heart skip a beat.

“We won’t force you to go, you know.” His eyes are still kind and much less wild than Shigure’s, but she can see a similar sort of mischief within them. “But it would make me really happy if you did come.”

Eleanor’s face heats up right away. “What? Why?”

Rokurou takes a step towards her, then another, and before she knows it he’s stepped right into her bubble and is leaning in close to her— so close that their noses are mere inches apart, so close that she can see the faint freckles on his tanned face. Her breath dies in her throat along with any words she may have had to say, and his smile is so deep and genuine that she briefly feels her knees buckle.

“Because I want to hang out and have fun with you, of course.”

She’s about to complain about that answer being too vague and that it could mean a myriad of things, but then she hears the telltale beep of a key card being used on the sensor to unlock the suite’s door. Eleanor springs away from Rokurou, but not before catching a glimpse of the wolfish grin that forms on his face when she does. Mere moments later, Shigure strides in casually and tosses his backpack to the side of the room haphazardly, clearly not caring about its contents or where it lands.

“You know, if you’re gonna start throwing your shit everywhere and making a mess, you could at least wait until we hit day three of living here,” Rokurou drawls.

Shigure throws him a hybrid of a sneer and a smirk. “Like you’re any better.”

“At least I keep my mess contained in my room,” Rokurou fires back with a shrug.

Shigure just grunts in response, and Eleanor eyes him, assuming that his response can only mean that he has no desire to continue talking about his organizational habits. However, he must be able to feel her eyes fixed on him, because suddenly she’s caught like a deer in the headlights when his gaze shifts to her. He drops the sneering portion of his once hybrid expression and is now just full on smirking, his eyes completely condescending.

“Hey there, Miss Eleanor. How was your first day?”

“It was fine, thank you.” She goes out of her way to make sure her tone is prickly, which she can tell Rokurou notices from the way he shifts his posture slightly in her peripheral vision.

Shigure just laughs for some reason before simply saying “good girl,” as he disappears into his room.

Once the door swings shut behind him and he’s been gone for a few long seconds, Rokurou turns his attention over to her and cocks his head slightly. “Uh, okay, so what was going on there? Seriously, did something happen?”

Eleanor sighs and rubs her forehead exasperatedly. “You know, I wasn’t lying earlier when I made the observation that you seem to be very perceptive when it comes to people and their feelings.”

“I take it that something did happen, then.” Rokurou’s mouth is pressed into a thin line, and she thinks he's somewhat worried.

“I don’t… I don’t know how to tell you other than just being blunt.” Eleanor is blushing a bit now, due to both the memory of Shigure’s somewhat chapped lips clashing with her own and the way Rokurou is currently looking at her like she has his complete and undivided attention. “Shigure, uh… made a move on me last night. While you were on the phone in your room.”

Eleanor shocks even herself when she impulsively opts to leave out the detail that she had really been the one who initiated the drunken make-out session. It hadn’t even occurred to her that she should omit that fact, and she finds herself puzzled briefly as to why she automatically did. Regardless, she justifies it in her mind by assuring herself that he had really been the one who started everything when he went for her neck.

Rokurou does nothing but roll his eyes frustratedly. “Yeah, I figured that might happen. Sorry about that. He’s a shithead.”

She blinks once, and then finally decides to state the obvious: “You’re brothers, but you seem to hate each other— and yet you live together. I don’t understand it at all.”

“We’re just Rangetsu's. Brothers, sure, kinda sorta. There’s more to it than just that.”

It’s now clear to her that she’s only going to get annoyingly vague responses from him, especially on this subject matter. Eleanor briefly wants to ask how there is “more to it,” but after a moment of consideration she figures that can of worms is most likely better off sealed up nice and tight.

“Rangetsu's,” she absentmindedly repeats after him, and Rokurou shoots her a grin that makes her face heat up again.

“Yeah,” he says, and his tone is off just a bit when he continues. “We’re very interesting, and talented.”

“Talented?” Eleanor echoes curiously.

“Mostly fencing, sword fighting, hand to hand combat, that sort of thing. Our parents owned a dojo. Still do, actually.” Rokurou’s voice drops an octave and there’s a hint of provocativeness to it when he speaks again, waggling his eyebrows dramatically. “And we’re good at other things too.”

Eleanor blushes significantly, makes a rather undignified noise, and swats him on the arm— something she feels comfortable doing with him already due to his easygoing nature. He laughs loudly as a response, but also catches her arm by her wrist when she bats at him and pulls her in close to him.

“Sorry about Shigure,” Rokurou repeats after a beat. She’s about to tell him not to worry about it when he cuts her off preemptively and speaks again. “Don’t let him sully your impression of us 'strong, proud Rangetsu men'.”

His lighthearted joke at the end of his sentence is cute, but it's hard for her to appreciate it much due to her stomach being too busy doing cartwheels because of how close she is to him. By now she knows that her face is tomato red, but she manages to stammer out a response somehow.

“D-Don’t worry, Rokurou, I won’t.”

Eleanor notes that when she says his name, an unidentifiable look flashes across his face for a split second— something dark, but also not. The moment passes quickly and then he’s smiling again. Rokurou surprises her by pulling her just a closer, and when she looks into his eyes they're unreadable—

“Good. Because I want my chance with you too.”

His voice is thick, heavy, and suggestive— but in a way entirely different compared to Shigure's. She finds herself frozen where she’s standing, her heart racing and her head spinning. Unlike Shigure, whose suggestive tone had made her experience an unfamiliar feeling of longing, Rokurou’s makes a strange warmth bubble up in her chest.

She stays rooted exactly where she is for just a few moments, finding herself lost in his eyes (and also in her overwhelming whirlwind of thoughts), but then he steps away and the spell is broken. He grabs his backpack off the coffee table and stuffs the lanyard with all of his keys attached into his pocket.

“Alright. I have to go to my last class for today.” Rokurou slides his arms through the straps of the backpack, then looks up and meets her gaze. “Don’t let Shigure bother you. Stay in your room if you really have to— or just knee him in the balls. Preferably multiple times if you get the chance. And if after all that he still somehow finds a way to bother you, tell me when I get back and I’ll kick his ass.”

Eleanor can’t help but giggle as she agrees with an affirmative nod.

* * *

Eleanor decides to take Rokurou’s advice to stay in her room, but she’s dismayed when she finds that she can really only close the door halfway. It’s only the tail end of August so it’s still hot outside, and she regrettably hasn’t invested in a fan for the room yet. That being said, it’s an undeniable fact that if she shuts the door completely there won't be any air circulation and the room will become unbearable. She makes a mental note to buy a fan for her room as soon as possible.

She’s well aware that a halfway shut door may not be enough to deter Shigure given what she’s seen of his nature so far, but she tries her hardest to ignore that fact as she starts doing her reading for one of her classes the next day. It might seem like a significantly fair amount of reading to some, but for her, it’s a breeze— Eleanor knows that she has always been good at school, if nothing else.

In fact, Eleanor is so good at school and gets so caught up in her reading and highlighting important parts of passages that she doesn’t notice Shigure standing in her doorway and leaning against the frame until his voice pulls her from her work.

“You sure are studious. Don’t suppose you’d mind writing my essay due next week?” He’s gazing condescendingly at her again, and an odd feeling courses through her entire body when she meets his gaze, her green eyes clashing with his golden ones, which are somehow even wilder than she's seen before— he's emboldened for some reason.

“You’re a junior in college and you can’t write a proper essay?” Eleanor goes out of her way to make her retort as dry as humanly possible.

His deep laugh echoes around her room, and she feels a lump beginning to form in her throat as a response to the sound of it alone.

“I'm getting the feeling that I’m not making the best first impression here.”

“Wow, what tipped you off?” Her voice is dripping with sarcasm.

Shigure laughs yet again, but this time it’s more light and playful. “C’mon, cut me some slack. I’m a 20 year old dude who just found out yesterday that he’s gonna have two women right across the way. It’s not the easiest situation to adjust to.”

Eleanor bites her lip and then finally responds with, “Well, I guess we can agree that adjusting will indeed be difficult.”

He flashes her another smile— not a smirk this time— and then asks, “Be completely honest, will you murder me if I step over this literal threshold and come in?”

Her entire body suddenly feels like it’s on fire, and she panics briefly before caving like the people pleaser she is.

“...Fine. You can come in. _But stay over there.”_

Eleanor points over at a corner of her bed, which is as far away as possible from where she’s currently sitting at her desk. Shigure arches a brow at her, and since she knows exactly what’s on the tip of his tongue before he even opens his mouth, so she cuts him off before he can even utter a single stupid word.

“Yes, I know, it’s my bed. Don’t be a child and just sit on it like a normal sane person. And no, I’m _not_ trying to have sex with you.” Eleanor may feel irritated already, but for some reason she doesn’t kick him out like she knows she can and should.

Shigure raises his hands in mock surrender like he did when they first met and slinks over to her bed, taking a seat on it. Eleanor knows for a fact that she won’t get any reading done with him hanging around, so she decides to take a break from studying and play the defensive game with him since there’s no way he’ll leave her alone.

“Gotta ask— what’s Velvet like?” He’s staring right into her eyes, a curious look on his face.

Eleanor pauses briefly before proceeding, “Do you want the short answer or the long one?”

Shigure leans back a bit and waves his hand in the air, illustrating his blatant impatience. “Short.”

“She’s a stone cold bitch.”

The blunt phrasing of her words seems to catch Shigure entirely off guard, and then he suddenly howls with laughter, even going so far as to throw his head back as he does so.

Eleanor glares at him. “What’s so funny?”

“I’m sorry— I just— I really can’t see you being friends with someone like that.” He chuckles a few more times before finally regaining his composure.

“Why not?”

He shifts his position slightly so his elbow is now resting on his knee and he nestles his chin in the palm of his hand. “Because you’re a good girl, I guess.”

Eleanor finds that she’s having trouble formulating a response with any kind of substance, so she simply winds up countering by asking, “And what is a ‘good girl’ to you?”

Shigure’s eyes shift again, and this time the dangerous edge is back. “Do you really want to know?”

She feels actual goosebumps rising up in real time on her skin, so she pauses for a long moment to think it through before responding with what she makes sure he'll be able to tell is a mocking echo of his earlier words:

“I guess.”

He sits up straight and then pats the space on the bed next to him with the hand he was nestling his face in moments ago.

Eleanor looks at the spot, then at his hand, then at him. “Nuh-uh. No way. There is a five feet minimum rule between us.”

Shigure shakes his head and sighs, running one of his hands through his hair. “You talked to Rokurou, huh?”

“...Yeah. How did you know?”

“He’s my annoying ass little brother. I can sense when he does something dumb from a million miles away.”

“Something dumb?”

Shigure hums for a brief moment and then nods. “Yup. Like telling you I’m bad or dangerous or some other bullshit.”

Eleanor hesitates, and then thinks back to her conversation with Rokurou— yup, that was the gist of it, really. A part of her feels guilty for being judgmental, so she decides to pry a little further. “So, are you telling me that you’re not bad or dangerous?”

Shigure just smirks. “I don’t know about you, but I don't put much stock in people’s own opinions of themselves. It’s more beneficial to observe and form your own opinions from the outside.”

She’s momentarily taken aback by his logic, and then finds her voice again.

“How am I supposed to determine if you’re dangerous or bad by observing and getting to know you? For all I know, you could be all that Rokurou says you are, and I’d be placing myself in a bad situation if I chose to get anywhere near you— both physically, and in any other sense you may have in your weird mind.”

Shigure sighs exasperatedly, and his only response is yet another pat on the spot next to him on the bed. Eleanor is glued to her chair— but a tiny voice in the back of her head tells her to take the risk, go sit next to him, and see what happens.

And in the end, it winds up being like David and Goliath: the tiny voice wins.

She slowly scoots her chair back from the desk, gets up on her feet, and nervously makes her way over to the bed. When he sees that she’s made the decision to come his way, his golden eyes flash briefly with some kind of unreadable emotion yet again and he seems to make a point of not making any sudden moves, instead opting to just pat the spot next to him one more time as some kind of weird reassurance.

Eleanor finally reaches her the bed and hops up onto it next to him. As she settles into her spot, his scent that she had become familiar with the last time washes over her once more. Frankly, it gives her a very strange and incredibly annoying feeling similar to an itch she just can’t scratch. She knows that she’s turning red, so she refuses to turn and look at his face, instead staring down at her hands in her lap.

She doesn’t realize that Shigure has tugged on the end of one of the two ribbons that hold her pigtails bound and in place until she notices her hair falling out on one side and landing down just past her shoulders. She freezes in place and he takes that chance to pull gently on the other ribbon, and then all of her hair is free, bright red, untamed, and reminiscent of flames— very becoming of her.

Eleanor’s breath hitches when she finally peers over at him and sees how he’s looking at her.

Shigure has an expression she can’t quite name— part mischief, part curiosity, and part awe, maybe? His hand slowly moves upward and feels her soft red locks, and her chest tightens when he tangles his fingers into the strands and admires them.

“Um, what are you doing?” She finally manages to ask in what she knows is a meek voice.

He hums lightly for just a moment before explaining. “Rokurou and I come from a family that came here from another region of the world. Almost everyone there has hair like ours— black. There are very, very few outliers. But you have this fiery, fierce color, and you live up to it.”

Shigure raises his eyes to meet hers directly and she can still whatever kind of emotion he's concealing in them again. He runs his fingers through her hair (and god, she hates that she has to admit that it feels good) and smiles.

“It’s breathtaking.”

His rhetoric is ironic given that Eleanor herself is breathless, feeling like somehow she's weirdly being worshipped by him in the moment. She doesn't reply, and Shigure doesn't seem to mind that. He brings the collection of strands still entangled in his hand up to his mouth and kisses them gently, then opens his palm and lets them fall from his hand and back into place slowly, piece by piece.

She swallows hard.

This time there’s no alcohol involved that she can blame.

Shigure is an asshole, as confirmed by his much more trustworthy brother.

And yet, with him right there, admiring her bright red hair, of all things— something she had been mocked for incessantly as a child— Eleanor finds that she wants to kiss him again. Or have him kiss her. Either would work. Her brain screams _no no no, Rokurou warned you, no no no—_

But before she has to make a decision, he’s closed the distance between them, and she shudders at the weight of his mere presence so close to her. He presses a kiss onto her cheek, then her jaw, and then he finally kisses her on the lips.

His lips are less chapped than yesterday— she briefly wonders if that is intentional— but she’s quickly pulled from that speculation as Shigure glides his tongue over her bottom lip, this time asking her permission. Eleanor is stiff for a good few seconds, and then she opens her mouth to him slightly, and his tongue finds hers. She whimpers into the kiss and he seems to tense up in reaction to the sound. He then becomes much more aggressive, attacking her lips without mercy and tangling their tongues wildly.

Eleanor finds that she can't help herself and she winds up letting out a full on moan. Shigure makes another low growling noise, same as last time, and suddenly she finds that he’s pushed her over onto her back and is on top of her, pinning her wrists down above her head.

“H-Hey—!” She’s shocked at first, wiggling around as much as she can, but when he plants a kiss on her neck and sucks at her skin lightly, she crumples inward. She knows she should fight back, but she doesn’t even try. He leaves a trail of kisses all the way down her neck and when he reaches her collarbone, he nips at it lightly before drawing back.

“Do you want me to stop?”

Even though he’s doing the right thing by asking, his voice is so damn _smug,_ so damn _pleased with himself,_ so damn _suggestive—_

But Eleanor finds that she can’t bring herself to say no, and instead just continues breathing quick and hard like she has been since he started kissing her. Shigure must notice, because he continues with, “I don't think you do, but I’m really not going to do anything more until you say so.”

She’s bewildered at how gentlemanly that gesture is coming from someone like him, and she then takes a solid moment to think before she ultimately turns her head to the side, averts her eyes in embarrassment, and feels her face turning a crimson color.

“I… I don’t. Want you to stop, that is.”

He chuckles and she feels the resulting reverberation throughout his body again.

“Look at me, then.”

Eleanor slowly turns her head back to face him, and shifts her gaze to meet his. She’s blushing bright red still, stuck looking into his eyes, which are wild and wanting. The nature of his gaze makes her feel even more demure, and she wants to somehow fold in on herself like a sheet of origami paper. There are no words to escape her throat, and she finds that she’s somehow spellbound.

His eyes flash back to dangerous briefly when she meets his gaze and something makes him tighten his grip on her wrists. She winces slightly and he immediately loosens it again, and after that he swoops back in to kiss her— and for no particular reason whatsoever, that’s the last straw.

Eleanor just finally fucking surrenders.

The kiss is passionate, heated, and rough. Shigure tangles his hands in her fiery red hair that he so adores, and he lightly tugs her head back so her neck is more exposed. Once it is, he begins to kiss down it once more, and then suddenly moves to the dip of her shoulder and bites down— hard. She yelps slightly, as she was not expecting it to hurt, but she quickly figures out why it did when he pulls back and grins— his canines are long and prominent. Eleanor is briefly taken aback at the sight, but after a moment passes he’s moved back in to press his lips against hers and explore her mouth with his tongue again. The way he kisses her is so hungry and so needy— she finds that for some reason, she really likes it.

She’s so engrossed in the way he's kissing her that she nearly jumps out of her skin when she feels his rough, calloused hand sliding upward under her shirt. Eleanor pulls back from the kiss momentarily to protest.

“W-Wait, I—”

Shigure smothers her words with another deep kiss and then mumbles against her lips, “Just trust me.”

Against all of her instincts, she does exactly that, staying as calm as she can as he returns to hungrily kissing her while sliding his hand upward. She’s perfectly content to kiss him back while his hand proceeds slowly. Once he reaches her chest, her breath dies in her throat— this alone is much, much further than she’s ever gone with a boy, and while it’s slightly scary, it’s also exciting.

When he lightly squeezes her right breast with her bra still containing it she can’t help but cry out softly, which must add fuel to the fire within him— or maybe even fucking lighter fluid considering how fast he moves afterward. The next thing she knows, he’s pulled her entire shirt up above her breasts and is reaching under the cup of her bra on the right side. He then squeezes her breast again, this time skin on skin, and she involuntarily arches her back and cries out again at low volume.

Shigure chuckles and moves his head to the side so that his lips are next to her ear, and mumbles the sweetest _“there we go…”_ into it. When the pad of one of his rough fingers brushes over her nipple for the first time, Eleanor lets out a sharp gasp.

That seems to be all Shigure needs to see or hear. He reaches around her back and efficiently undoes her bra— Eleanor briefly ponders how and why he was able to do so in such an easy fashion (okay, she can deduce why, but decides not to go there)— but her thoughts are drastically cut off when he removes the entire garment, takes a moment to admire her fully exposed chest, and then takes one of her nipples and rolls it between two fingers with moderate pressure.

Eleanor cries out, significantly louder this time, and Shigure curses right into her ear upon hearing her.

She wants to curse back at him— in fact, she’s about to— but then his mouth quickly descends to her left breast and she’s speechless once more as he latches onto her, skillfully utilizing his tongue, applying suction at the perfect times and in all the right ways. Eleanor has melting and is turning into a mess, which seems to delight him further.

_Oh my god, this man has got to be a sadist._

It’s at that exact moment that they both hear the familiar beep of a key card granting access to the door of the suite.

Eleanor panics, her eyes snapping open and clashing with Shigure’s. “We have to stop— it's Rokurou—!”

Shigure just laughs and strangely says, “Don’t worry.”

That’s all she _can_ do, though— and her worry is quickly escalating to panic— but when Shigure moves his mouth back to her chest and then additionally begins to massage the breast that's not being lavished by his tongue, she finds herself completely unable to continue objecting.

There are audible footsteps for a moment, and then Rokurou’s voice calls out her name, and after a brief pause, his brother’s.

Eleanor is completely dumbstruck when Shigure pulls back the slightest bit from her chest, calls out “we’re in here, dumbass,” and then picks right back up where he left off, this time sucking on her so tightly that when he releases her breast there’s a small popping noise.

Rokurou appears in her doorway, and she swears time stops. Eleanor is right there in front of him on full display, his brother playing with her breasts unashamedly, her eyes gazing directly into Rokurou’s. Extreme panic and anxiety sets in quickly, but it’s not enough to entirely offset the pleasure she's currently receiving from Shigure’s mouth.

In a completely shocking act that is the exact opposite of what she expected, Rokurou just rolls his eyes, drops his backpack right where he's standing, and strides into the room towards the two of them.

“You _never_ could be the least bit fucking patient, could you?”

Shigure makes a noise that is clearly some kind of laughter against her chest before his mouth releases her breast again and he flicks her nipple with his tongue, and she can’t suppress the small whine that escapes her mouth.

Rokurou’s eyes flash in way she’s not seen before when he hears her, and for the first time, Eleanor thinks that they may resemble Shigure’s. He closes the distance and shoves Shigure off of her and to the side. Eleanor sighs in relief and is about to sit up, but then finds herself pinned down once more.

Rokurou firmly straddles her hips, and her heart rate speeds up drastically. Shigure sits up from where he's been shoved aside and shoots a lopsided smile at her.

“I guess we owe you an explanation.”

Rokurou just laughs.

Eleanor is starting to feel like she’s left out of some inside joke, so she just frustratedly spits out, “That’s an understatement.”

Shigure echoes Rokurou's laughter, and as he does so, Rokurou makes an unexpected move: he, too, lowers his mouth down to her chest and bites down hard on her right breast, eliciting a loud noise from her. She begins to move around again as he starts using his tongue in a similar manner to Shigure when he was doing the same. Eleanor is intermittently crying out softly and whining, but she somehow finds herself able to still be tuned in and listening when Shigure finally launches into an explanation.

“It’s kinda complicated. Rokurou and I are only half brothers, and I mean, if that. Well, shit, never mind— I guess it's really not all that complicated.”

She’s thoroughly unsure of where this is going, and it’s all she can do to maintain focus and listen when Rokurou’s hand, less rough and calloused than Shigure’s but arguably larger, grips onto her left breast and squeezes harshly.

Eleanor lets out a long moan, and Shigure lets her carry it out before he continues. “We have the same mom, but different dads. And in our family, which is dictated by some pretty dumbass strict traditions, all that matters whatsoever is the paternal side of things.”

Rokurou pulls back, and Eleanor tries to catch her breath while he elaborates upon what Shigure had started explaining. “So, basically, we’ve been raised all our lives as not being brothers. We were rivals and training partners above anything and everything else. This sounds super fucking morbid, but since our mom died when we were both young enough to barely remember, it feels like we don’t have any blood ties, really.”

“Exactly. But despite all that, we’ve still always had the innate extremely competitive nature that brothers often have with one another— over everything and anything you can think of. One of our worst fights as kids was who would get the top and bottom bunks. I have a permanent scar from that one.” Shigure flashes her a smile before continuing with, “So as you can might be able to guess, we _always want the same things.”_

"The same things,” Eleanor whispers hoarsely as she finally puts the pieces together. Both brothers throw her unique grins— Rokurou’s is more mischievous, while Shigure’s is downright devilish.

“Exactly,” Shigure says casually, like they're discussing something as common as the weather.

A few moments pass before she’s able to stammer, “S-So wait— in this case, you mean _me?”_

A brief glance exchanged between the two boys and another pair of wide grins aimed in her direction way confirms it.

“I don’t get it,” Eleanor finally confesses, turning red and basically devolving into mumbling.

Rokurou hums absentmindedly, the wheels in his head clearly turning. “How to put this nicely…”

“We both want to fuck you senseless,” Shigure says casually once again, now leaning against the wall her bed is up against, speaking as if it’s the least complicated thing in the world.

Eleanor makes a loud sound as if she's choking on air followed by a violent cough while Rokurou swivels his head to shoot a death glare at his brother, who merely shrugs again, a smug look accompanying it this time.

“So,” she takes a deep breath, “let me get this straight. You two are technically half brothers, but you claim you're basically not. You seem to hate each other, but it’s really just some weird twisted rivalry. And you always want or compete for the same things, like every boy to ever exist in the history of ever, because boys are dumb.”

Shigure nods while smirking, like he always seems to do. “Yeah, that about sums it up. And I guess once both of us saw and talked to you, we both individually wanted to make a move on you. And, of course, for that very reason, both of us also instantly knew right away that the other wanted to do the same thing.”

Eleanor looks over at Rokurou and arches a brow. “So earlier, you weren't really warning me about Shigure, you just wanted me to stay away from him so you could win me over yourself?”

Rokurou looks like a kid caught stealing from a candy jar. “Well, yeah. Kinda. Sorry.”

She’s pretty sure that she shocks them both when she responds with, “Don’t apologize.”

They both stare at her.

Eleanor takes a deep breath. “I… I’m just going to be honest. I don't have much experience with men. Any, really. At all. I’ve just never focused on it.” She then buries her face in her hands, clearly embarrassed, and says in a very muffled voice, “That goes for sex, too.”

There’s nothing but silence for several long moments, so she finally dares to drop her hands and raise her head to look at the two men. They exchange glances briefly once again and then shoot her near identical looks, as if they’re waiting for her to continue with what she had been saying. It takes her another moment to gather herself up and another deep breath before she can resume speaking to them.

“I won’t lie— I have never believed that any sort of lying is productive— so I thoroughly meant it when I said I wasn’t expecting to room with boys,” she hesitates, and then pushes onward: “But given that this living situation is very much a reality that I have to face, I also won’t lie to you two and tell you I don’t find you both attractive.”

Rokurou grins widely, and Shigure has the haughtiest of looks on his face.

“Anyway… I kinda understand the situation now. I mean, I think that I do— maybe. I just don’t know what the point of you telling me this is, or what you want from me.”

Rokurou’s response makes her freeze for a good few moments:

“It’s not about what we want from you. It’s the opposite, actually. It’s about whatever you want from us. As for why we’re telling you this, in the spirit of being honest, when you went to sleep after drinking the other night, the two of us started talking— maybe arguing a bit, or a lot— sorta nonstop— we also got a few punches in, actually— about you. Like I said, it was clear that we both wanted to make moves on you on our own individual accounts.”

Shigure nods in agreement and picks up where Rokurou leaves off.

“But whenever we’re at odds over a girl, both of us lose. Always, even since we were kids. We’re too competitive and it usually drives them away, and somehow we always like the same girls. It’s to the point where we don't bother much with women anymore at all— we haven’t in over a year, actually— which is why it’s some weird fucking twist of fate that we suddenly got saddled with two new female suitemates.” He pauses. “Well, only one at the moment, I suppose.”

“So are you planning on trying to have sex with Velvet when she gets here too? Don’t blame me when you end up with a broken nose, or a broken anything else.” Eleanor’s voice is as flat as she can possibly make it.

Shigure laughs harshly, no doubt recalling her 'stone cold bitch' remark from before, and Rokurou simply smiles at her again.

“No.”

Eleanor lets out a sigh of relief— not at all for herself, but for the two of them and their various body parts that Velvet would be perfectly capable of maiming if such an event had ever taken place. She then pauses for a moment before speaking once more.

“So… what is this, then? Like I've already said, I’m not going to deny that I’m attracted to both of you, but we also have to be able to share the same living space or I owe the school $6000 for breaking my housing contract. This is complicated.”

“No, it’s not.”

Shigure’s quick answer shocks her. She stares at him briefly, and then her gaze shifts to Rokurou, who seems to agree with Shigure based on his expression.

“How is it not?” Eleanor feels another irritated mood coming on, and she’s losing patience with the two of them being so vague.

“Well, we used to just beat the shit out of each other all the time so only one of us— the winner— got whatever he wanted, but over the past two years or so we’ve been able to stop doing that— well, on _some_ topics, anyway; we still beat the shit out of each other a lot— but we’ve started working out how to attempt to compromise and find what’s beneficial for both of us,” Rokurou says with a sheepish grin.

Eleanor still isn’t following completely, so Shigure rolls his eyes at Rokurou and, seemingly deciding that this is taking too long, decides to just get down to brass tacks.

“We're both interested in you, but we both know that beating the shit out of each other won’t solve anything here, no matter how satisfying it may be— it would only be a prime example of something that could push a girl away, and let me be clear, I'm not saying that I’m opposed to trying the whole beating the shit out of each other thing regardless— but in the pursuit of compromise, we’re asking if we can share you.”

" _'Share me'_? Oh my god, I'm _not a possession!"_

"Jesus, calm down— I know." Shigure scowls and runs a hand through his hair again.

Eleanor feels like she's been punched in the gut— but somehow not in a completely bad way. Her face is as red as her hair, and finally she manages to choke out her words. “So what is this? Some twisted and creepy joint custody agreement? You get me one day, Rokurou does the next? That’s just weird.”

“Nope, that's not it at all.”

She blinks twice, confused. “Then what do you—”

Her words morph into a strangled cry as Rokurou dives down to her chest once again, taking her left breast into his mouth, but biting down harshly on only her peaked nipple this time. When that sensation fades, she’s about to try to speak again— but a new, completely foreign sensation rushes through her body and she jolts unexpectedly.

Shigure’s moved down on the bed so he can sit between her legs, and his hand has not-so-subtly snuck up between them. Given that she’s wearing a dress, all he really had to do was reach under and slide his hand up her leg— _cheap shot,_ she thinks to herself. She finds that her involuntary jolt can be attributed to him stroking her through her underwear— up and down, rubbing in circles, sometimes gently and sometimes with force. She bucks her hips upward, but Rokurou is still seated on top of them, pinning her down and straddling her while he keeps one breast in his mouth and pinches the nipple of the other between his fingers, rolling, tugging, or twisting it every few moments.

Eleanor is breathing so hard she honestly worries she might pass out, and she finally manages to put a string of words in order, albeit very sloppily:

“Wait, y-you two— _ah_ — want to have sex with me me _together?”_ Her statement is both interrupted and immediately followed by two brief moans and an involuntary reaction to buck her hips again as Shigure grinds his thumb against her clit through the fabric of her underwear.

“Well,” Rokurou takes a break from nipping around her right breast. “Not like, 'fucking you at the same time' sex. But we finally decided it's logical that if we can't go our usual preferred way of beating the shit out of each other until someone wins, and we both really want what's at stake, if we can somehow we manage to share, we can compromise. Assuming that you’re enjoying this, of course.”

He goes back to work before Eleanor can adequately respond and she’s ashamed to admit now that she is, in fact, enjoying it. She's finding it harder and harder to breathe now, her eyes clouding over and then fluttering shut. This is all brand new to her— sure, like she had admitted to herself earlier, she’s toyed with her clit before, but the way Shigure is grinding and rubbing against it— even through the fabric of her underwear— is making her more sensitive by the second, and she’s starting to feel tension rapidly growing in her body that’s already seeking release.

While she can compare the sensation of clitoral stimulation and knows that’s not very revolutionary to her, the focus on her chest **is** completely new to her. Eleanor has never really experimented, and thus never really known about anything remotely close to this; her relationship with her only boyfriend had been completely chaste, just soft kisses and sweet whispered words, and past that, she never really bothered with boys romantically again.

But here she is, sprawled out on her tiny twin bed in her dorm room with two handsome boys making her feel better than she ever could have imagined— in tandem, even.

Eleanor has more questions about this extremely fucked up situation— many, many more— but when she feels Shigure hook his fingers onto the top of her underwear she’s rendered speechless once again. She then then loses the focus she’s so desperately trying to maintain and cries out when Rokurou pinches and rolls one of her nipples again, this time with significantly increased force. By the time she comes back from the high of that touch alone, Shigure already has her underwear off and thrown across the room, and she feels his hand sliding up the inside of her right thigh towards the now fully exposed area between her legs.

When he finds her bare clit and presses his thumb up against it, she jolts again— but like before, Rokurou's presence keeps her hips down, so all she can do is wiggle under him as he keeps her pinned and lavishes her breasts with attention from his tongue and teeth, making sure to divide his time evenly between the two.

Suddenly, Rokurou stops and climbs off of her and Shigure’s hand retreats, but they both remain on the bed. When she’s finally able to open her eyes and calm her breathing, she shoots a confused gaze at them.

“You’ve never had sex, right?” Shigure’s eyes are set upon her, and he is incredibly blunt once more with his words.

Rokurou shoots him an irritated glare and Eleanor winces, though she supposes that she may have to get used to his straightforwardness.

“R-Right.” Her face turns red with embarrassment.

“Needless to say, we don’t want to hurt you.” Rokurou’s voice is comforting whether he intends it or not.

His brother— or rather, not brother— rival, whatever— snorts with laughter behind him. “Speak for yourself.”

Rokurou rolls his eyes and grumbles, “Well, okay, Shigure may be into that shit, but _that’s_ not something to just jump into.”

Eleanor bites her lip and, in a weak attempt at humor, says, “Well, it's my second day at college and apparently my two unexpected male suitemates want to take my virginity, and then share me from now on like some kind of reverse sister wife, offering me twice the attention. This is really bizarre. I honestly don’t know what to say.”

“Yeah, it is pretty absurd. Sorry.” Rokurou looks semi-ashamed for the first time, and she feels the need to react instantly.

“No— I just… I mean...” Eleanor trails off, turning her head to the side.

“What is it? Spit it out already, Eleanor.”

“Shigure, for the sake of all that is holy on this earth, _please_ shut the fuck up.” Rokurou’s voice is basically a hiss.

A meek laugh escapes her and she turns her head back to look at the two of them. They’re both staring right into her eyes— well, Shigure may also take a moment or two to allow his eyes to dart down to her chest, which doesn't surprise her— and it makes her feel uncomfortable in her own skin somehow. Eleanor simply lays there for a minute, studying every aspect of their faces— and then finds herself wondering about their bodies. Her face turns bright red as she does so.

Shigure notices her very obvious blush, laughs, and then casts a glance in Rokurou’s direction. “She's got something rattling around up there.”

Rokurou makes a humming noise of affirmation, and they both keep their eyes fixed on her until she finally blurts out, “Well, I don't want to be the only one who’s shirtless!”

Shigure doesn't waste a single second and his shirt is gone almost right after she finishes her sentence. She stares at him and blushes more, which makes him grin. Rokurou, meanwhile, is glaring at his brother.

“Goddamn showoff.”

“Get faster, then.”

Rokurou follows suit and pulls his shirt over his head. Eleanor has to take in a deep breath upon seeing and admiring them both— because, to put it bluntly, both of the “Rangetsu men” are incredibly well shaped and defined. Without thinking, she reaches up and places one hand on Rokurou’s stomach out of curiosity and then feels a surge of heat between her thighs as she drags her fingers over tough, toned muscle tissue.

“Well, none of us have shirts now,” Shigure says casually.

“Wow, capital observation skills right there,” Rokurou drawls, and Shigure responds with a slap on the back so hard that Rokurou releases an involuntary loud cough.

Eleanor stays silent for a few long moments, and then says, “I’m… I’m still not sure.”

“Well, we won’t force anything,” Shigure says with a shrug. “We’re assholes, but definitely not _that kind_ of assholes.”

“You can speak for yourself about that whole being an asshole thing,” Rokurou retorts, and Shigure just laughs at him. Despite the shedding of their shirts, at this point it doesn't seem like either Rokurou or Shigure think that Eleanor wants to proceed with this plan— or that she wants this to happen at all. As far as they know, she could be terrified.

However, for Eleanor, both the unbearable heat that keeps intensifying between her legs and the tension building in all of her muscles are screaming otherwise. And as she thinks things through, weighing the pros and cons in her head of this entirely nonconventional and ultimately nonsensical mess of a situation that she's stumbled upon, she realizes that all her life she’s been a ‘good girl’.

What even is a ‘good girl’, anyway?

Go to church every Sunday. Study harder than anyone else. Get the best grades, or else. Play a decent sport and be sure to excel at it. Don’t drink or do drugs. Get a decent, steady, dependable job. Marry some boring man. Waste away in the suburbs as a housewife. And never, ever, ever step a toe out of line.

Maybe, just maybe, she’s finding that for once, she wants to be **_bad_** instead.

* * *

“Shigure?”

Her voice comes out quieter and more meek than she had hoped it would, but she captures his attention nonetheless. Her cheeks are burning hot, but she forces her next words out before she has the time to reconsider even uttering them:

“Can you touch me again like you did before?”

The way his signature smirk blooms on his face is worth a thousand words, and since Rokurou has moved so he's no longer on top of her, she's able to watch Shigure’s hand descend and locate her clit with ease. He rubs his thumb against it especially harshly and a traitorous moan escapes her lips. Undoubtably satisfied with himself, Shigure continues to toy with her, and then without warning he inserts his index finger inside her, releasing a brief grunt himself when he feels how slick she is.

He continues to move his thumb against her clit as he starts thrusting his index finger in and out of her, and she lets out a choked cry of pleasure.

She hears Rokurou suck a breath in through his teeth when the sound of her satisfaction reaches his ears and she looks up at him, instantly spotting the tension in his face. While she continues to gasp and moan as Shigure begins to insert a second finger— _“Fuck, Eleanor, how are you so tight, Jesus Christ,”_ — she goes the extra mile and pulls Rokurou down into a kiss. Eleanor realizes that she hasn't actually kissed Rokurou yet, and she finds that his lips are much softer than Shigure’s— and that his tongue is somehow longer. Interesting.

She kisses him for as long as she’s able, but eventually she’s breaking down, panting, and crying out as Shigure thrusts his fingers in and out of her rapidly and then lowers his mouth to latch onto her clit. Eleanor lets loose the loudest moan she has yet and Rokurou reacts visibly— and that’s when she realizes that he’s probably got to be dying while being forced to watch. So, in the spirit of fair play, she decides to be proactive and does the first thing that comes to mind.

When she reaches blindly into his lap, Rokurou looks momentarily confused, but when her hand slides over the bulge in his pants his eyebrows shoot upward as he looks down at her. She’s attempting to fumble with his belt now— which is very, very difficult to do blindly with one hand— so he decides to help her. In fact, he hops off the bed entirely, undoes his belt, and drops both his pants and his boxers to the floor.

Eleanor turns crimson red— she’s studied much anatomy, even in books with explicit pictures— but this is her first time seeing a real penis on an actual live male. Rokurou must be able to tell that she's staring because he grins and sluggishly climbs back onto the bed. Eleanor is still distracted by Shigure’s activities— she cries out especially loudly once again as he scrapes his teeth against her clit— but she does the best she can to hold on, reaching over to Rokurou’s erect length and giving it an experimental squeeze. He grunts in what she can only assume is satisfaction.

Slightly unsure of what to do given that she’s got no prior experience, she keeps her hand still, hoping he’ll notice and help her. Rokurou seems to somehow understand her predicament, so he uses his own hand to gently guide hers up and down along his cock. She's a fast learner, and he’s able to let her loose on her own within a minute, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes in pleasure as she pumps her hand up and down.

It’s then that she suddenly cries out at an unprecedented volume as her entire body jolts upward. Shigure has evidently lavished her clit with his tongue to the point that she’s near the edge, and he seems to have every intention of practically shoving her over it. He swirls his tongue around her and Eleanor’s body begins to convulse and shake violently in response. She finds that she has to release her grip on Rokurou so she can grab fistfuls of sheets in both hands as she twists around and has the first orgasm of her life. Shigure makes sure to help her ride it out completely, relentlessly sucking on her clit and lapping away at her slit as she finds her peak.

Once she’s spent but finally beginning to catch her breath, his head surfaces from between her thighs and she sees a combination of her fluids on his lips and chin. Eleanor flushes bright red again at the sight, and then even more so when he simply licks his lips, wipes away what’s on his chin, and locks his eyes onto hers.

She takes the time to let her breathing even out, allowing herself time to calm down— but she’s surprised to find that she doesn’t feel done yet— or rather, she may or may not be drunk on power and not done abusing it yet. Having two very attractive men catering to her every whim could go to her head very fast, honestly— it may have even already started (actually, it has and she just doesn't want to admit it). Finally, since they’ve been so blunt with her, she decides to try to return the favor.

“I… I kinda want to ask for something,” she finally says, her chest heaving up and down as she breathes in and out deeply.

Rokurou looks over at her curiously and asks, "What?"

Eleanor opens her mouth several times as if to speak, but ends up closing it every time, unable to find her words or her courage. "I, uh... well, I would—"

Shigure interrupts her without missing a beat. "She wants us to fuck her, Rokurou. Don't play cute and act like you don't know."

Eleanor's entire body goes numb upon hearing her request worded in such an incredibly crude and blunt fashion. Shigure shoots a glance at Rokurou that's far too self-satisfied, but Rokurou completely ignores it, choosing instead to look into her eyes. "Is that what you want, Eleanor?" The direct eye contact with him makes her chest feel unbearably tight.

Trying her best to hide her cherry red face behind her hair, she faintly mumbles, "yes."

The two boys exchange looks, and this time it's Rokurou who shoots a dirty smirk at Shigure, who in turn looks disgruntled as hell. Eleanor scrutinizes the dynamic of the interaction between them, and then realizes the significance.

Rokurou slowly makes his way over on top of her, leaning down to kiss her neck tenderly. She moans, long and slow, but then inhales sharply when she feels something hard brush up against her. Rokurou positions himself so his lips are by her ear and he whispers to her, “I want to ask one more time just to be absolutely sure— do you want this?”

Eleanor both answers his question and expresses her frustration all at once by yanking on his hair _hard_ , and although he yelps initially, it quickly transforms into soft laughter and he mutters a warm, reassuring, and seductive “well, okay then.”

Once more, she feels his cock come into contact with her, and she whines when he slides it up and down her slick opening and moves the head of it against her clit. She finally releases an especially loud moan and she can only assume that’s what finally provokes Rokurou to take action.

She feels the very tip of his length pressing inside her, and then she inhales and simply feels as he continues to press into her— it’s long and thick and _oh_ , it’s spreading her out so perfectly as he slides inside of her, filling her up, but taking his time to avoid hurting her in any way. Eleanor would be lying if she said she didn’t feel a few twinges of pain along the way, but after having her first orgasm, she’s much more calm, loose, and relaxed than she would have been otherwise.

Once his entire length is inside her, he squeezes her on the arm as if to let her know, and she takes a moment, then nods at him when she finally feels ready.

Rokurou pulls out and then drives back into her, making Eleanor produce a sound she didn’t even know she was capable of making. This only seems to serve to spur Rokurou onward even more, and he lets out a rough noise as he starts methodically thrusting into her, setting a pace that has her choking back sobs. Having already had her orgasm, she’s incredibly sensitive, and within no time at all she’s whining and writhing beneath him as he plunges his entire length into her.

Suddenly, she actively spots Shigure to the side, leaning against the wall, and she presses her hand to Rokurou’s chest as a signal for him to stop.

“Shit, Eleanor, are you okay?” Panic surfaces on Rokurou’s face quickly as he assumes he’s somehow hurt her.

“I’m fine— I’m _way_ better than okay, actually, but Shigure—”

Upon hearing his name, Shigure’s gaze shifts to meet hers, and she takes a deep breath.

"Um, I want to try something.”

He simply raises his eyebrows.

“Come here.” Eleanor says, and it comes out sounding more commanding than she had intended, but Shigure’s eyes merely smolder and he obeys, moving towards her. She then looks up at Rokurou and says, “P-Pull out for just a moment.”

He nods affirmatively and does so, even if it pains him (which she’s sure it does).

Shigure’s seated on the bed next to her now, stroking her red tresses that are fanned out around her head resting on the pillow. Despite his sweet action, he is all sarcasm when he speaks.

“Now what, Spitfire?”

Eleanor can’t help but laugh a bit at the nickname, and then she sits up. Clearing her throat, she prepares for an extremely awkward suggestion. “So, uh… I don’t watch porn. Or rather, I’ve never been interested, and I’ve barely seen any, but I have seen fragments—"

The look on both of the boys faces' practically screams that they blatantly don't believe her, but she can tell that at least she has their undivided attention, so she continues uninterrupted. "...And I did see something briefly once that I think you would both like, and I... want to try it.”

She then takes a deep breath before her next statement.

“I... I'm, um, going to need to be on my hands and knees for this.”

Shigure eyes her with renewed vigor, and Rokurou looks straight up shocked.

Eleanor turns to meet Shigure’s puzzled gaze and then bluntly says, “Take off your pants— you’re the only one with any still on anyway.”

He snickers at her as she issues yet another command to him, but obeys it without question, shedding both his pants and boxers as well. When he finishes and is on full display like Rokurou, Eleanor is shocked (and somewhat happy) to learn that not just one of them, but in fact both of them are decently endowed.

“So, boss, where are we headed with this?” Shigure’s language is eternally crude and sarcastic.

She shoots a vindictive glare at him. “Be quiet or I won’t even _try_ giving you a blowjob.”

Shigure makes a loud coughing sound to mask whatever odd noise escapes him out of sheer surprise, and behind her she hears Rokurou roar with laughter, though she’s sure he may be just as shocked.

Eleanor takes her time to position herself comfortably on her hands and knees, hoping that she’s doing everything right— she's basing this off a literal 30 second porn clip that she saw ages ago, so frankly she’s nervous as hell. She doesn’t even look back at Rokurou when she feels him put one of his hands on each of her hips. He lines himself up at her slick entrance and sweetly drives back inside her, re-establishing a solid rhythm quickly.

She cries out involuntarily, and Shigure shoots his normal smirk down at her, challenging her with his eyes. “Sure you can do both?”

Another glare is apparently all the answer he needs, and he makes the last necessary movements, positioning himself so that his cock is level enough with her mouth. Eleanor emits a loud moan as Rokurou thrusts into her particularly forcefully, and while Shigure is pumping his hand up and down along his length, she can see he doesn’t appear to need help from her. When he’s ready, he stops stroking himself and Eleanor takes a deep breath to steady her nerves— well, as deep as she can while she’s stuck panting and whining in between Rokurou’s thrusting into her.

“I-I’ve never done this before, so you may have to help me.”

Shigure is still smirking when he nods. He then moves his hips forward, and Eleanor proceeds to try taking as much of his length as she can into her mouth.

His reaction is instantaneous as he throws his head back and groans unashamedly. Once the initial shock wanes, Shigure reaches around to the back of her head, tangles his hand gently in her red hair that he apparently adores oh-so-much, and lightly applies pressure to push her head forward and help her along. She follows his guidance, still stuck involuntarily moaning repeatedly while doing so as Rokurou plunges into her with ferocity from behind. The sensations that surround him from her making the aforementioned sounds force Shigure to emit a sort of growl, and he lightly increases the speed with which he is moving her head.

Eleanor feels incapable of almost all rational thought at this point, what with Rokurou pounding into her from behind and Shigure guiding her head up and down his entire length, groaning whenever she manages to take in more than she had previously. It isn’t until she feels his cock hit the back of her throat and she hears Shigure curse very loudly in turn that she realizes she’s found his kryptonite (and she may just feel a little bit smug). His fist full of her hair is tightening to a vice grip, and he’s clearly beginning to lose control. Using her wicked newfound knowledge, she begins to time the bobbing of her head down onto his length with Rokurou’s thrusts into her, finding that it sets a good rhythm.

She’s taking as much of him as he can and while he's still holding her fiercely by the hair, he’s honestly no longer guiding her at all. The whole time that her mouth has been and now currently is around him, she’s still been unable to control her moaning and whining that Rokurou causes as he thrusts into her over and over and the continuing vibrations of her throat caused by her noises only accelerate Shigure’s rapidly growing feelings of ecstasy. He unconsciously begins to slightly thrust forward in time with her head’s movements— Shigure is cursing nonstop, and she feels his length pulsing in her mouth. At the same time, Rokurou's thrusts are beginning to seem like they're becoming more wild and erratic, and the way he's stretching her out is pushing her close to the edge once more as well.

Shigure is the first one to tip over the edge, finding his release inside Eleanor’s mouth, which she was obviously expecting but frankly not ready for. Regardless of her surprise she takes in what she can, and afterwards he lets out a satisfied noise that makes her shiver. While she can definitely now say for sure that cum doesn’t exactly suit her tastes, she finds that it isn't so terrible that she can’t swallow most of it either— and now that her self-assigned task of sucking Shigure's cock is finished and she’s oddly proud that she's just successfully given her first blowjob, she can bury her face down in her pillows and elevate her hips just a bit more for Rokurou.

She’s free to be as loud as she wants now that there isn’t anything in her mouth, and she’s admittedly becoming loud as hell. Eleanor cries out over and over as Rokurou slams into her as deep as he possibly can. When she begs him to go faster, he groans as he picks up speed and lasts about another minute or two before rapidly pulling out, making a strangled sound as he finishes on her back.

Despite just having finished himself, Rokurou can easily tell that Eleanor is close to a second orgasm, so he reaches between her legs with his hand and moves his thumb against her clit like Shigure had earlier, gently coaxing her in a soft voice until she breaks down and finds her own release once more.

Finally feeling completely spent, Eleanor collapses onto the bed, breathing harder than ever. She feels Rokurou wiping down her back for her and breathlessly lets out a "thank you.”

* * *

Eleanor may be tired and ready to relax, but she’s not completely prepared to do so just yet. She hops off the bed— stumbling momentarily due to her legs feeling like jello— and grabs one of both of the boys’ hands and drags them to the common area despite a long string of objections. She then lays out the futon and flops back onto it, then pats the areas on either side of her. Rokurou laughs and Shigure just shakes his head.

Shigure is the first to join her, climbing onto the futon on her right side and snaking an arm around her waist. He kisses the side of her jaw and then slowly transitions to sucking on the skin of her neck lightly, and she smiles, humming contently.

Rokurou joins her a good few minutes after Shigure, but that’s mainly because he’s taken some time to collect a few pillows and blankets. He, too, climbs onto the futon and takes the remaining spot next to her, nuzzling his nose up against her neck.

The three of them lay tangled up under the blankets together, and Eleanor, who is now only one goddamn day into her college career, finds that she’s now coveted by two extremely attractive men, she just happens to be stuck living with them, and also that they are quite capable of taking care of her. Even stranger, they're both comfortable being with her at the same time, and she can tell how much they're willing to do for that given their self reported history of 'beating the shit out of each other' over things constantly. All these thoughts run through her tired brain, and hey, call her a sappy romantic, but somehow she feels that this is just the beginning of what’s to come for all three of them.

Shigure whispers seductively in her ear on her right side that he has all kinds of ideas for them in the future.

Rokurou then assures her from her left side in a very snarky tone that he’ll be sure to shoot the unrealistic and terrible ones down for her to save her the trouble.

Eleanor laughs, and it’s _joyous_ and it's _genuine_ and it’s really just _perfect._

* * *

When Velvet finally arrives at the university two weeks later, she happens to make her grand entrance by walking in on Rokurou pounding Eleanor into the futon while Shigure is in class.

Upon spotting Velvet standing in the doorway staring at them (unfazed, as always), Eleanor shrieks and buries her face in her hands, clearly mortified and beyond embarrassed that she hadn’t heard the telltale beep of a room key being used. She pulls her face out of her hands and looks around for a blanket— a towel— _anything_. Rokurou ceases his strong thrusts into her when he is alerted to Velvet’s presence, and then he both shamelessly and cheerfully introduces himself to Velvet while his cock remains quite literally still inside her best friend.

When Velvet finally speaks, she sighs and says, “Oh my god, I’m gonna be living in a some special kind of freak show hell, huh?”

Velvet’s deadpan tone gets to her as always, and Eleanor can't help but let out a short laugh— and she also can’t help but notice that Velvet’s lips curve upwards ever so slightly into her telltale tiny smile despite the horrific reality of this situation.

Rokurou, who Eleanor has simply concluded is a free and wild spirit that no one can ever hope to control, shoots his usual grin over at her friend. Still resting comfortably inside her, he casually says, “Oh, wait until you meet my brother— he loves her, too.”

Eleanor makes a frustrated noise and smushes her face down into the futon’s cushions, now somehow surpassing being utterly mortified— it’s made even worse by the fact that there is absolutely nothing nearby to cover them with, and Rokurou has made it clear that he’s neither ready to pull out nor is he finished with her yet (alongside the fact that he has no shame).

Velvet, who is basically incapable of showing shock on her face, just shakes her head at the two of them. She then carries her first set of boxes over to her door and begins fumbling to find the correct key on her lanyard. Once she does and she gets the door to swing open, she picks up her first box and starts walking inside— but then turns back briefly to speak.

“This is the part where I tell you three things, Rokurou— and you can pass these on to your brother, too. One: if you hurt my friend I will kill you. Do not make light of this threat. Two: if you’re gonna fuck, keep it to a bedroom, or if you need the main space _please_ just tell me so I can get the hell out and never have to see what I am currently seeing again. And three: if any of you fuck up my kitchen once I have it fully set up, I’ll slit your throat.”

Rokurou seems completely unbothered by the death threats and simple mock salutes her before saying, “Yes ma’am!”

Eleanor just mumbles a muffled “yup, okay, thanks Vel,” and flashes her friend a thumbs up while she still has her face smushed down against the futon cushion.

Velvet turns on her heel and enters her room, the door shutting behind her, and when it clicks shut Rokurou immediately thrusts into Eleanor again. She cries out loudly in pleasure, but then twists around and glares at him behind her.

_“Did you not hear a single thing she just said?!”_

“Oh. Right.”

Eleanor yelps in surprise as Rokurou pulls out, hops up onto his feet, and then picks her up and throws her over his shoulder, carrying her to his room and grinning all the way.

* * *

A week and a half after her arrival on campus, a sincere sign that the apocalypse is coming takes place: Velvet starts dating someone— a girl, to Eleanor’s complete and utter shock. Honestly, in the grand scheme, the whole “Velvet dating someone at all” bit is way more shocking than her best friend’s newly discovered attraction to women.

Magilou Mayvin is everything that Eleanor never, _ever,_ ** _ever_** would have thought Velvet would want in a romantic partner— she’s loud, sarcastic, teasing, and sometimes just over the top ridiculous. For some reason, though, they make it work so easily: the two of them fit perfectly like pieces of a puzzle. Magilou balances out Velvet’s sourness with her humor, and Velvet keeps Magilou’s crazy in check (well, _most_ of the time).

Their dynamic ultimately is what makes Eleanor start thinking harder about her own extremely odd situation, and she comes to the conclusion that the three of them are the same way— three puzzle pieces, her in the center, snugly and securely snapped in place together.

It honestly takes her a while to get used to consistently waking up with someone in bed with her, and it takes even longer to adjust to having _two_ someones there. For a while she still gets surprised when occasionally one (or both) of them will wake her up gently touching her, or kissing down her neck, or even just embracing her tightly from behind— but over time, she gets used to it and she begins to expect it. Eleanor knows that she’s spoiled rotten, but Rokurou and Shigure don’t seem to mind indulging her one bit, so she can’t bring herself to care in the slightest. If one of the boys is in class or off doing something else, there’s always the option of Eleanor and the other being solo, but it’s undeniably always best when they’re together.

There's one particular night when Eleanor is especially blissful and exhausted from having been granted the pleasure of three orgasms, and Velvet has her door closed so the three of them can lay on the futon together under their favorite blankets.

Without even thinking about it, she murmurs for the first time, “I love you both.”

Rokurou is the first to respond with “I love you, Eleanor.”

Shigure remains silent, so Rokurou reaches his leg over top of her to kick him hard in the shin, and he yelps loudly before saying “I love you” in a hushed, maybe even slightly embarrassed tone a minute later.

There’s a few moments of silence, and then Shigure’s voice rings out loud and clear in the darkness: “Just so we’re clear, asshole, I definitely don’t love _you.”_

Rokurou’s only reply is his quiet snickering.

* * *

A few days later, Eleanor walks in on Velvet sprawled out on her futon with her legs wide open and Magilou's head nestled comfortably between them. For a moment she’s stunned by the moans and whimpers escaping Velvet’s mouth (sounds she has definitely never heard, or frankly even imagined possible), and then she’s just stunned all over again at seeing her best friend being eaten out by her new girlfriend in their suite’s common area.

The boys (who had been accompanying Eleanor on a grocery run and are hauling most of the bags) walk in behind her and Shigure erupts into boisterous laughter, while Rokurou just grins in disbelief and says “you’ve got to be fucking kidding me” in a tone of mixed horror and hilarity.

Magilou breaks from her work for a moment and Velvet angrily kicks her in the side for doing so, which is blatantly ignored. “ _Oh,_ so now only _you three_ can fuck on the futon?! Talk about double standards!”

Eleanor finds herself erupting into a giggle fit while the boys set the grocery bags down in the kitchen area. “Hey, first of all, I bought that futon! And, wow, really, Velvet?! If I recall correctly, your statement was ‘if you’re gonna have sex, keep it to a bedroom, or if you need the main space tell me so I can get l out’, right?!”

Velvet rolls her eyes, clearly growing more and more frustrated with the stress that’s rapidly building up inside her body. Desperately craving release via her girlfriend’s mouth, she clears her throat and takes a deep breath so she can make her voice as loud as possible when she shouts at the very top of her lungs for the entire dorm to hear:

**“ATTENTION ALL: WE NEED THE COMMON AREA TO FUCK. CLEAR OUT.”**

Eleanor can't help but laugh hysterically, and when she is finally able to stop, her eyes just happen to land on Shigure. Once she has his attention, she shoots him a sweet look that's laced with her new signature hint of mischievous intent to it, and he catches on right away. She then reaches over to take Rokurou’s hand in hers, and when he sees her expression, he grins wildly.

“Whose room?”

She responds with a simple, “Doesn’t matter.”

**“IF IT DOESN’T FUCKING MATTER THEN _PICK ONE AND GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! JESUS!”_**

She laughs loudly again and Rokurou (who has now joined in the hysterical laughter) sweeps her up in his arms, walking towards her room. Shigure casually follows behind them, his head thrown back as he continues to cackle, all the while doing his best to ignore the very naked Velvet spread eagle on the futon. Rokurou swings her door wide open, and as it’s shutting behind them, she hears Magilou teasingly say, “Well well, hell hath no fury like a Velvet denied her orgasm, hmmm?”

Before the door clicks shut entirely, a loud yelp of pain that is unmistakably from Magilou rings out, and then Eleanor hears Velvet growl _“get back to work, woman.”_

Eleanor can't keep herself from giggling again as she flips the lock on the door and then turns around. Shigure and Rokurou are both already waiting for her on the bed, and they couldn’t contrast more in their appearance and attitudes if they tried— Rokurou is sitting upright, eager and ready, while Shigure is leaning back against the wall, trying to play it cool (although she knows him well enough by now that she can sense his silent anticipation).

Eleanor smiles out of pure joy when her boys both extend one of their hands out to her. She takes them into her own and somehow feels that in this moment, all is right in the world— or, at least it is in Suite 202.

**Author's Note:**

> so somehow while writing this i wound up really liking this college au scenario and i'm pretty sure i'm gonna write fic for other pairings in the same au universe. "pretty sure" as in i already have another in mind. what a time to be alive. much productive. such wow. okay, i'll see myself out now.


End file.
